The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
Jeffrey Rosen
Simon & Schuster (February 2024)
How and why happiness is the result of what you do, not what you feel
A clarification of terms would be advisable at the outset of this brief commentary.
In his uniquely valuable Introduction, Jeffrey Rosen points 0ut that the Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia, meaning “good daimon,” or good spirit, and the Greek word for virtue is arete, which also means “excellence.” Rosen notes that in The Nicomachean Ethics, “Aristotle famously defined happiness as virtue itself, an ‘activity of soul in conformity with excellence.’ These terms are confusing to us, because excellence and virtue aren’t self-defining. For this reason, although eudaimonia is hard to translate, it might be rendered as ‘human flourishing,’ ‘a purpose-driven life,’ or, in modern terms, ‘being your best self.’ The Latin word for virtue is ‘virtus,’ which also means valor, manliness, excellence, and good character.”
Rosen then adds, “What Cicero and Franklin called ‘virtue,’ therefore, might be translated as ‘good character.’ Today, modern social psychologists use terms like ’emotional intelligence,’ which they define as ‘the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.'”
The material is organized within twelve chapters and each has a specific focus.
1. Twelve virtues and the pursuit of happiness
2. Ben Franklin’s quest for moral perfection
3. John and Abigail Adams’s self-accounting
4. Thomas Jefferson’s reading list
5. James Wilson and George Mason’s debts
6. Phyllis Wheatley and the enslavers’ avarice
7. George Washington’s self-command
8. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton’s Constitution
9. Adams and Jefferson’s reconciliation
10. John Quincy Adams’s Composure
11. Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln’s self-reliance
12. Pursuing happiness today
Rosen selected the six Founders — Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton — and read the works of those classical thinkers who had the greatest influence on each of them. I was curious–indeed intrigued — to share Rosen’s thoughts about various primary sources and their appeal and value to the given Founder. For example, Jefferson compiled a “top ten” list that includes Locke, Xenophon, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Cicero.
“This book is an attempt to travel into the minds of the Founders, to understand their quest for the good life on their terms. By reading the books they read and following their own daily attempts at self-accounting, we can better understand the largely forgotten core of their moral and political philosophy: that moderating emotions is the secret of tranquility; that moderating emotions is the secret of tranquility of mind; that tranquility of mind is the secret of happiness; that daily habits are the secret of self-improvement; and that personal self-government is the secret of political self-government.”
Jeffrey Rosen’s book is a “must read,” especially for the current members of the Supreme Court of the United States.