Aristotle’s Answer to the Modern Crisis of Meaning

Many in our time speak of man as if he were nothing more than a cluster of atoms, a clever ape, or even a plague upon the earth. This way of thinking strips humanity of its dignity and purpose. Without a clear vision of what man is for, it is no wonder so many are caught in a crisis of meaning. Aristotle, writing over two thousand years ago, offers an answer that still speaks with clarity. He begins not with feelings or passing trends, but with the question: what is the work of man?

Every art and skill has a goal. Medicine aims at health, generalship at victory, shipbuilding at seaworthy vessels. In each case, the good is the end result for which everything else in the process exists. If man has a unique work, then his good must be found in performing that work well.

Aristotle reasons that life itself cannot be man’s unique work, for plants also live. Nor can it be sense perception, for animals share this as well. What is distinctively human is a life of activity guided by reason. This is more than the ability to think in a technical sense. It is the capacity to know what is true and good, and to order one’s actions accordingly.

If this is man’s work, then his good is to live a life according to reason in an excellent way. Excellence in this sense is virtue. Happiness, then, is not a fleeting feeling but the full flowering of a life lived in accordance with virtue, over the course of a complete life. It is self-sufficient, lacking nothing, and worth choosing for its own sake.

This vision cuts through the shallow views of modern reductionism. If man is simply a machine of atoms, there is no true purpose beyond survival or pleasure. If man is only an animal, there is no reason to expect a moral life that rises above instinct. But Aristotle’s account shows that man is a rational creature with a noble work, and that his highest good is found in living that work well.

For those of us who see the world through the light of faith, this understanding is completed by the truth that our reason and virtue find their perfection in God, the source and end of all things. To recover this vision is to reclaim a sense of meaning, dignity, and direction that our age desperately needs.