Duty and Delight
Tom Morris
Philosopher. Yale PhD. UNC Morehead-Cain. I bring wisdom to business and to the culture in talks, advising, and books. Bestselling author. Novelist. 30+ books. TomVMorris.com. TheOasisWithin.com.
Duty and Delight. I spent part of the weekend reading William B. Irvine's book A Guide to the Good Life, subtitled "The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy." It's a very good introduction to one of the most practical of philosophies in all of human history.
Recently, Ryan Holiday has been making the Stoics hot again, through books like "The Obstacle is the Way," "Ego is the Enemy," and "Stillness is the Key." Ryan's a young guy who writes with energy, verve, and great stories. William Irvine, by contrast, is an older philosopher who reflects with broad life wisdom and a sensitivity cultivated over decades as to what a good and practical philosophy of life can do for anyone. They both write engaging books. I bought Irvine's when it first appeared in 2009 but just got to it yesterday Compared to Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," which I bought 41 years ago and just read, I was in a big hurry to get to Irvine's book and post here mere pages from the end.
Irvine doesn't make this point, but things he does say sparked me to realize this. There are two kinds of philosophies for life, those that stress desire as the path to pursue, and those that focus on duty as our main concern.
The Path of Desire.
The Path of Duty.
The former sounds fun and exciting, and the latter by contrast dull, difficult, and boring. But perhaps the opposite is true. The Stoics believed that we are created with a nature, a function or cluster of proper functions. When we act in accordance with the highest aspects of our nature, we flourish. When we don't, we suffer. It turns out that building a life around pleasure ends up ironically being dull, difficult, and even more surprisingly, boring. But focusing on duty, on what we're here to do and be and become to flourish at our best, well, that brings a life that's none of those things. It brings in fact the best and most lasting pleasures, delights, and joys to those of us who do it well.
Duty, it turns out, can be the Doorway of Delight, when understood and lived properly. Who knew?
For Irvine's book, click HERE.