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Bellewether Blog
Words that ring a bell in your mind ...
February 17, 2024
Eudaemonia/Eudaimonia
Pronounced eu·dae·mo·niaˌ yüdēˈmōnēə / Definition is from Greek eudaimonia, from eudaimon-, eudaimōn having a good attendant or indwelling spirit (from eu- + daimon-, daimōn spirit.
The word eudaemonia is appearing with more frequency in online articles and in general conversations today and because of this it has caught my attention. It’s really a beautiful word—with all those lovely vowels lined up—and I posit that the meaning many have assigned to it is quite oversimplified. Eudaimonia is being shortchanged, if you will, when its meaning is denoted as happy or lucky. Although happiness and good luck are to be valued and appreciated, the meanings I’ve found for eudaimonia are far more expansive, compellingly complex, and ultimately worth a trip down the proverbial rabbit hole.
A Psychology Today online article —see What-is-eudaimonia by Gary Drevitch, posted June 28, 2020 and revised on May 15, 2023—provides a deeper understanding of this word as “good soul,” “good spirit,” or “good god,” rather than happy or lucky. The article succinctly says,
“It has nothing to do with chance and fortune and everything to do with thought and design. Compared to happiness, it is a much deeper, fuller, and richer concept, sometimes articulated in terms of flourishing or living a life that is worthwhile, fulfilling, and elevating.”
Eudaimonia is then more of an active way of being rather than an emotion or the good fortune that can come our way unbidden. The main distinction seems to be that eudaimonia is not something that happens to us or is felt by us but is rather the actions we humans take that make the world a better place; a way of living (and loving, by extension) that is based on the highest principles of generosity, justice, and equality.
This interpretation seems to be exemplified here in a fascinating online resource found on the Springer Link website (www.springer.com ), which lists a periodical, Handbook of Eudaimonic Well-Being, and a specific chapter titled, “Aristotle on Eudaimonia: On the Virtue of Returning to the Source.” This excerpt is remarkable as it offers a multi-branched, yet very clear, definition of eudaimonia. The article’s author, Blaine J. Fowers, writes:
“Eudaimonia is explored as an ethical concept referring to the best kind of life, which is an outgrowth of humans’ natural endowments. Eudaimonia is a form of activity (that includes subjective experience, but is not limited to it), comprised by the pursuit of ends that are choiceworthy for human beings. Eudaimonia is a unified way of life, but it has multiple constituents (e.g., belonging, justice, and social harmony). Eudaimonia is related to, but distinct from pleasure (hedonia).”[1]
There I found another amazing link to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and a plethora of other links regarding studies based on how to promote eudaimonia. The link to a study by C.D. Ryff notes that he researched how “eudaimonic well-being can be promoted…{and} how to promote positive functioning….” It goes on to say that “Aristotle’s writings were not a treatise in how to promote virtuous living; rather his objective was to articulate varieties of virtue. Thanks to contemporary science and practice, however, the possibility of promoting ever wider experiences of eudaimonia for ever larger segments of society is becoming a viable objective.”[2]
The footnotes below give links for those of you who would like to examine the studies based on the goal to promote eudaimonia and there are so many articles of interest. What I found illuminating, but not surprising, was that greed (and capitalism as its foundation) was found to be a major deterrent for eudaimonia for many individuals in the world today. That's a broad synopsis of the findings, to be sure, but if you want to go down that rabbit hole, be my guest!
All the best ~ Heidi Jo
[1] An important note by Blaine J. Fowers, the author of the Springer Link article on Aristotle, Handbook of Eudaimonic Well-Being, is added here. Please note that I agree with and acknowledge the author’s opinion. “It is important to note and disassociate myself from Aristotle’s notoriously inegalitarian views. In accordance with his time, he viewed propertied male citizens as superior humans, with outsiders, women and {enslaved people} having a lesser status. In every modern appropriation of his ethics, including this one, these inegalitarian views are repudiated. His ethics can be relatively easily universalized to all human beings to square with contemporary {understanding}.”
[2] Ryff, CD. Happiness is everything, or is it? J Pers Soc Psychol. 1989;57:1069–1081. Ryff (2014) [Ref list] and Ryff CD (2016). Eudaimonic well-being and education: Probing the connections. In: Harward DW (ed) Well-being and higher education: A strategy for change and the realization of education’s greater purposes. Bringing Theory to Practice, Washington, DC, pp 37–48.
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