CHAPTER 11 Making wise decisions: thinking well
‘The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.'
JOHN F KENNEDY, COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT YALE UNIVERSITY, 11 JUNE, 1962
When Plato and Aristotle considered a moral life, they thought in terms of a virtuous life, a well-lived life of human flourishing. This is quite different from our modern tendency to think in terms of right and wrong.
I find this idea quite attractive. I appreciate the idea of ‘flourishing', with its suggestion of fully rounded growth and development, of success, wellbeing and thriving. Setting our goal on human flourishing, and a life well lived, invites us to make moral choices.
Moral choice is not primarily selecting what is right over what is wrong, but choosing to do what will help you become all you can be — to ‘flourish' as a human being. If you make choices, for example, that involve violence toward yourself or others, even in small things such as clutching at anger, those choices limit your growth. They hold you back. They prevent you from flourishing in that area of your life.
Get Humanise: Why Human-Centred Leadership is the Key to the 21st Century now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
