Jordan Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos is, by most accounts, popular, as in well liked. Peterson has garnered a large following through lectures and has many viewed videos on YouTube.
In a 2018 interview with The Observer headlined “Jordan Peterson: ‘The pursuit of happiness is a pointless goal,’” he says, “(I)t’s all very well to think the meaning of life is happiness, but what happens when you’re unhappy?
“Happiness is a great side effect. When it comes, accept it gratefully. But it’s fleeting and unpredictable. It’s not something to aim at – because it’s not an aim. And if happiness is the purpose of life, what happens when you’re unhappy? Then you’re a failure.”
When it comes to the meaning of life, I wholeheartedly agree that happiness is not a goal, but I wouldn’t consider it a “great side effect,” either. Happiness can seem “fleeting and unpredictable,” but St. Thomas has a way to make happiness “less fleeting” and “more predictable” and that is through living a virtuous life or living life through virtue.
Peterson says, and you will note by your own experience, that you will be “unhappy” at some point or period in life. That doesn’t mean you should conclude yourself a failure. This happens when we are misled or confused about what is good for us. Or, if we do the wrong sorts of things, even with the best of intentions, we’ll tend to move away from what is really good for us.
On this path we will experience frustration, seem like we are a failure, and we will be miserable. This is often the case when we pursue false sources of true happiness, as laid out in my previous column.
St. Thomas says we need many different virtues to be on a stable, happy path in this life as we prepare for the next life, union with God. These are human virtues, known as the moral and intellectual virtues, and the theological virtues. Each of these perfects different dimensions, capacities and powers of the human person in different ways.
What is virtue, and what are they called? There are human and divine-sourced virtues. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) defines the human virtues as “stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order our passions, and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. (They) are acquired through human efforts aided by God’s grace.”
Different authors will espouse different virtues. Susan Muto in her book Virtues: Your Christian Legacy names 28. I will discuss the virtues in the three categories from St. Thomas.
The moral virtues, which the CCC labels as “cardinal” (from the Latin cardo, meaning hinge, because all the others are grouped around them) are prudence, justice, fortitude (courage) and temperance (self-control). The scriptural reference for this list is Wisdom 8:7. (Greek philosophers also recognized these as the four primary virtues.)The intellectual virtues are understanding, knowledge and wisdom. These are included in the list of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit found in Isaiah 11:1-2.
The CCC defines the theological virtues as disposing Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive and their object – God known by faith, God hoped in and loved for his own sake. They inform all the moral virtues and give life to them. They are faith, hope and charity. These find their source from 1 Corinthians 13:13.
In regard to the intellectual virtues as St. Thomas puts forth, many probably have not associated them with virtue. Father James Brent, OP, from the Thomistic Institute explains: “St. Thomas thinks of reason or intelligence in high and noble terms, and those terms are summed up in the intellectual virtues. His explanation of these reveals the potential of the human mind to go to the heights and depth of truth.”
In future columns, I will explore all of these virtues, but first let us ponder these words from Psalm 119:1-3: “Blessed (think “happy”) are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!”