Tag: happiness
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Practicing Happiness: Ancient Wisdom for Our Modern World
The pursuit of happiness is one of three rights originally drafted by Thomas Jefferson in the “Declaration of Independence.” These “unalienable rights” are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is an odd turn of phrase, but one that has a profound backdrop to it, one which we have perhaps lost today. It is…
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Aristotle’s Virtue Theory and a Christian Purpose of Education
Up till now in this series I have evaluated Bloom’s taxonomy and mostly used Aristotle’s intellectual virtues as a foil in my critique. And so while I have, to a certain extent, defined and described Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues, alongside offering an outline snapshot of a classical Christian educational paradigm based on them, my explanations…
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The Search for Happiness, Part 2: The Way of Wisdom
In my previous blog, I examined how modern research, particularly through the avenue of positive psychology, confirms some of Aristotle’s insights about human beings and the well-lived life. In particular, I observed that author Shawn Achor’s definition of happiness as “the joy of striving after our potential” isn’t that far afield from Aristotelian virtue theory. …
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In Search of Happiness, Part 1: The Road of Virtue
In 1952, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, an Ohio-born pastor who went on to minister for fifty-two years in New York City, published a book that would go on to change his life and career trajectory. The book’s title? I’m sure you’ve heard of it, at least, as an idea. It’s called The Power of Positive…
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The Flow of Thought, Part 4: The Seven Liberal Arts as Mental Games
There’s a lot of talk these days about the war between STEM and the liberal arts (which we are meant to understand as the humanities generally). Often this gets posed as a trade-off between a utilitarian education—training our future engineers, scientists and programmers—vs. a soft education in human skills and cultural awareness. Given the hype…
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The Flow of Thought, Part 1: Training the Attention for Happiness’ Sake
It may seem strange to look to modern psychology for support of classical education. After all, it’s the vagaries of modern thought that have got us into this educational trouble in the first place. The abandonment of tradition, the scientism and revolutionary overhaul of religion have all taken their toll on the proper training of…
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Aristotle and the Growth Mindset
Whether you’ve been involved in the world of education, sports, self-help or business, it’s likely that you’ve heard of Carol Dweck’s growth mindset. A Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dweck popularized her findings about how much success in any endeavor depends on a person’s mindset. In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, she explains…