“And a virtuous man wishes to live with himself; for he does so with pleasure, since the memories of his past acts are delightful and his hopes for the future are good, and therefore pleasant. His mind is well stored too with subjects of contemplation.”
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
We all have some kind of interior life. While it might not be readily perceivable by those around us, it is central to our life as a whole. What goes on inside is really the main determinant of how we act and interact with others in the exterior fora of life.
Here Aristotle describes the ideal—how virtuous men keep company with themselves, enjoying an active interior conversation about past, present, or future realities. Such men are great company for themselves, and as a result, also great company for others. They pass their days, both in action and in repose, in varying forms of reflection and of presence.
How does one achieve this? The question is as rich as how one becomes virtuous. We can always benefit from considering basic questions from new angles. It’s always about virtue. In this case we might simply meditate on what such an interior life is like. How thrilling, how challenging, how engaging, how peaceful. How alive.
It is efficacious to begin by picturing what we want. One glorious facet of the virtuous life is the concord one experiences within one’s own self.
To reflect upon the nature of such an interior life, and how to achieve it, is in fact already to have embarked upon it. We can be grateful to Aristotle for pointing to this wonderful aspect of how we can live with ourselves.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), student of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great, has been considered by many to be the greatest ancient philosopher. The Nicomachean Ethics is his major ethical work.
Image: Anthony Van Dyck (Flemish, 1599-1641), Studies of a Man’s Head
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Thanks Dr. Cuddeback, well said and thought provoking.
You wrote “How does one achieve this? The question is as rich as how one becomes virtuous.” In response to that you wrote that we should first picture what we want and that by reflecting on the interior life we have already embarked on it. Do you have any other specific or practical suggestions for beginning to consciously improve that interior dialogue? Like you said in the article, it is central to our lives as a whole so I think many would benefit from any more thoughts you may have on it.
Cheers,
Philip
Philip, Thank you very much for this question. That is worth much thought. Here is at least a start. I’ve just been studying the virtue of hope. By the virtue of hope a person looks with confidence to the future, knowing that by his own or his friends’ power (when a natural hope) or by God’s power (supernatural hope) he can achieve the good things he is called to achieve. It seems to me that hope is central to our interior conversation. It directs us to avoid unnecessarily negative assessments and outlooks. How many of us poison our interior dialogue with negative thinking, harping on and worrying about our failures or difficulties! Properly understood, ‘positive thinking’ does have an amazing power. The goodness of nature, and its Author, calls for such positive, hopeful thinking.
At risk of stating something obvious (though perhaps we all can still benefit from it): reading accounts of great human persons–both real and fictional–fills our imagination with images that inspire and guide us. And we carry these with us, and they feed our own reflections and deliberations about how to live. The power of such images should not be underestimated. Thanks so much for asking.
Thanks for your written and video reflection. I was thinking that as Christians, we can even go a little further, a little deeper into the ultimate truth, concerning the ideal interior conversation. For as Christians, we believe in one God, who is Love itself. Therefore, beyond merely thinking about good past deeds (and having hope for the future based on the virtue of our soul) and contemplating sublime philosophical topics, we can have, as the object of our mind’s eye, the being and love of God Himself, whence we rest in a loving self-surrender, a conscious, loving abandonment to the love and will of God. Therefore, it seems to me that the most saintly interior conversation will be a sacred, devout silence – not a slothful torpidity, to be sure, but a pure love of God, such that our trust in Him is so great that our thoughts are rather few. Indeed St. Thomas says that the human perfection consists in a total absorption of our minds in God: Quia vero summa perfectio humanae vitae in hoc consistit quod mens hominis Deo vacet (Summa Contra Gentiles III.130).
Thank you, Brian. The notion of total absorption is a very powerful one. We surely do well to reflect on what steps might cultivate such an absorption. Thank you again.
Hugely ignored today, yet vitally important always, is this thing called the interior conservation. It comes increasingly to the fore as one grows old. Thank you, Dr. Cuddeback, for quietly injecting this subject, through Aristotle, into the cacophony of our current mass communication. My experience of the interior conversation has taught me that its depth and clarity are greatly enhanced when God is acknowledged (and felt) as a third-party participant.
Or indeed as a second-party! Thank you Newton. Age does indeed, hopefully, bring these things into clearer focus, doesn’t it?
Wonderful reflection..how we choose to converse with ourselves and therefore love ourselves in order to live fully and be able to show others love.
Thanks for sharing!!!!
Colleen, You are so right to make the connection with self-love! Conversations are very much determined by love. Working on our interior conversations goes hand in hand with working on a proper love of self. Thank you!