22d • General discussion
Starting at the beginning - the man, the myth, the legend... Socrates!
I want to start right at the beginning because mental health and the pursuit of happiness isnt this new phenom that we have developed because of the smart phone, but it is something which has been continually question by the brightest minds in the history of the human race. Because long before neuroscience, or therapy, or over complicated wellbeing frameworks and fads, humans were already asking the same underlying questions. Such as, what does it mean to actually live well? What is happiness? What brings a sense of peace that lasts? Why do some people remain steady in the face of difficulty while others feel constantly unsettled? We tend to talk about mental health and happiness as if they are modern concerns, born out of technology, pressure, and the pace of contemporary life. As though previous generations somehow had it figured out, and we are the first to struggle with meaning, fulfilment, and inner stability. Sorry to burst that bubble, the reality is far less new.
Philosophy, in this sense, was one of the earliest attempts to understand mental health. Not in the clinical way we think of it today, when you're handed a small cylinder of happy pills or sat on a leather couch with a safety pillow, nestled between your overbearing arms, but as an exploration of how a person’s inner world, values, and actions either align or clash. The language was different, but the concern was the same: how to live in a way that feels coherent, meaningful, and deeply human.
Socrates - a name im sure your familiar with was the god farther of exploring happiness. Nope not in the way in which he ran a huge crime family but in the sense that he openly explored these questions to life. 2500 years before we had this mental health pandemic, he was becoming one of the earliest and most influential voices in the conversation around our own well being. He didn’t frame happiness as pleasure or success, but as something far quieter and more demanding. A way of living that required self-examination, moral clarity, and an ongoing relationship with truth.
When Socrates spoke about happiness, he wasn’t talking about pleasure, comfort, or success. His ideas weren’t confined to possessions or ego. He was interested in something far more demanding, and arguably far more stable. The word often used to describe his view is eudaimonia (I get it, it sounds like a type of flu, but give it a chance, it’s actually pretty inspiring). It’s commonly translated as happiness, but it’s more accurately understood as ‘human flourishing’. BOOOOM, mic drop, you all inspired… Job done! No? Ok but eudaimonia is not a feeling, not a mood, but a way of living that allows you to be your best self. If you couldn't tell i personally think it’s a very cool word, despite its flu-like connotations.
For Socrates, happiness was not something that happened to you. It was something you cultivated through how you lived, how you thought, and how honestly you related to yourself and others. This is why he famously argued that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” For Socrates, it wasn’t a dramatic rejection of everyday pleasures. It was a statement about inner coherence. A life lived without reflection, without questioning your values or actions, was a life prone to inner conflict, confusion, and dissatisfaction, even if it appeared successful on the surface.
And I think this is painfully relevant today. We idolise people who seem to have it all, only to later discover they’re often the most internally broken among us. Everything has become so plastic and artificial that many of us have been led to believe our happiness depends on external approval and constant gratification. And the more we learn about our happiness and mental health the more learn that this is so far from the truth.
At the most foundational level of Socratic happiness is self-knowledge. Socrates believed that much of human suffering stemmed from ignorance, not in the sense of lacking information, but in not truly knowing oneself. So question such as, what do I value? Why do I act the way I do? Where am I driven by impulse rather than reason? Became more important for self discovery and building a level of happiness which lasted. This process of self-examination wasn’t abstract philosophy for Socrates. It was an act of care for the soul. As scholars like Wolfsdorf have pointed out, Socrates treated ethical inquiry itself as a form of wellbeing.
And honestly, we’ve never had more opportunity to do this kind of self-reflection. Whether privately through journaling or publicly through conversations and shared ideas, the ability to reflect, connect, and learn has arguably never been more accessible or more encouraged than it is now. We live in a world of abundance, so do yourself a favour and abundantly quiz yourself.
From self-knowledge comes the second layer of flourishing: virtue. Imagine that being said in a really gripping, dramatic way. VIRTUEEEE. You got it that time… cool. For Socrates, virtue, or aretê (I can be fancy too), wasn’t about moral perfection or rigid rules. It was about alignment. When reason guides action, the soul becomes harmonious. This is why Socrates claimed that “no one does wrong willingly.” In his view, people don’t act badly because they want to be immoral, but because they misunderstand what is truly good for them. When someone genuinely understands the good, they naturally move toward it. You chase it. When you know - which you will by the end of this book - that running does more for your mental health then therapy and medication combined you will not stop running - instead you will chase that feeling, that satisfaction of accomplishment.
This reframes happiness in a powerful way. External goods like wealth, status, or pleasure are no longer central even though it feels they are often framed that way in the our modern world. They might be enjoyable sure, but they’re unstable and easily lost, and instantly loose valuable as we seek the next best thing. And right now, it often feels like we’re a growing population of all-or-nothing thinkers, where we don’t really allow ourselves to be happy at all. In Socrates’ view, true happiness depended far more on moral integrity and inner consistency, things that can’t be taken away by circumstance. This is what gives the VIRTUOS person a sense of calm that’s less reactive to life’s inevitable ups and downs.
It’s not far off what we now describe as intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.
Something you can genuinely ask yourself right now is this: what are you prioritising in your life at this moment? Are you chasing intrinsic happiness, or extrinsic approval? If you feel like you lean more on the extrinsic side this may of already questioned half your battle when it comes to your mental space.
At its highest level, Socratic happiness becomes philosophical rather than practical. It moves beyond right action into wisdom itself. This is the pursuit of truth, understanding, and alignment with what Socrates called the Good. Happiness here isn’t excitement or pleasure, but a quiet fulfilment that comes from living in accordance with reason and reality. It’s almost a state where you, as an individual, become unified by understanding rather than pulled apart by competing desires. Importantly, Socrates never saw this as a solitary achievement. Individual flourishing was always connected to the wider community. A just soul contributed to a just society, and a just society made it easier for individuals to live well. Happiness, wasn’t an isolated inner experience, but something shaped through ethical relationships and shared responsibility. In many ways, Socrates was already pointing toward an idea we now recognise in modern psychology: wellbeing is personal, but never purely individual. We are moulded and shaped, to a huge degree, by the communities we surround ourselves by.
Socrates lived and died in accordance with his values, refusing to abandon truth or integrity even when it cost him his life…Not to get fully side tracked right now, but a fun history lesson for a moment. If you didn’t know, Socrates died by forced suicide, taking poison. The reason was simple and still super unsettling: he encouraged the youth to question, to think for themselves, and to believe they deserved more from life. So he was killed. Brutal i agree. But from a Socratic perspective, this wasn’t a failure of happiness, but its final expression. A life examined, aligned, and lived in harmony with reason. In many ways, he was a true pioneer of happiness and what it means to live a purposeful, fulfilling life.
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Starting at the beginning - the man, the myth, the legend... Socrates!
