Does only one thing make "life worth living"?

Martin Black

In contradiction to the experience of every one of us, the word "school" derives from the Ancient Greek word for "leisure," on the assumption that the study of philosophy is the one activity we would engage in during the hours in which we do not have to work. Our school seeks to cultivate the reading and discussion of classic and modern works of philosophy and philosophical literature. The second most urgent reason for this activity stems from the fact that we inhabit a world that is the product of the partially successful philosophical project known as the Enlightenment or modernity. To understand ourselves and that project’s partial failure requires reading the early moderns who set it in motion. The most urgent reason is that the contention of the classical philosophers that the best life requires some attempt to comprehend the whole of human existence remains unrefuted and possibly true. They argue that any human being may conclude from their own experience that there is reason to use our intellect, the most important part of us, whose “activity would seem to be what each person is, since it’s the authoritative and better [part]. It would be strange, therefore, if someone were to choose to live not their own life, but the life of someone else.” (Aristotle, Ethics 1177b34 ff.).