The Attainment of Happiness

5 ideas

1. Four virtues that together yield happiness

   Happiness for nations and cities comes from four kinds of human things: theoretical virtue, deliberative virtue, moral virtue, and practical arts. Theoretical virtue knows the beings and their causes. Deliberative virtue works out what is most useful in particular circumstances, moral virtue gives the character to want it, and practical arts carry it out. No single virtue is enough; each depends on the ones above it to direct it and the ones below it to make it real.

2. Philosopher, ruler, lawgiver, imam are one

   The philosopher who has theoretical knowledge, the supreme ruler, the lawgiver, and the imam are one and the same figure, only named for different functions. Knowing intelligibles, legislating the conditions for realizing them, and leading others toward them all require the same full perfection. A ruler without theoretical knowledge is a ruler in name only, and so is a lawgiver who cannot derive laws from first principles.

3. Religion imitates philosophy for the multitude

   Religion presents, in images and persuasive arguments, the same truths that philosophy grasps through demonstration and intellectual conception. Religion does this because most people cannot understand things as they are in themselves, but they can be moved by likenesses fitted to their understanding. Philosophy therefore comes before religion in rank and in time, and religion is its popular imitation, not its rival.

4. Instruction versus formation of character

   There are two methods of bringing people to virtue. Instruction produces theoretical virtues through teaching, using demonstration for the few and persuasion for the many. Formation (ta'dib) produces moral and practical virtues through habituation, and it uses both willing persuasion and compulsion for those who will not submit. A ruler must use each method on the right people, the way a father uses different methods with different children.

5. Deliberative virtue as leadership's core

   The highest deliberative virtue works out what is most useful for a whole nation or for many nations over a long time, and it rules over lesser forms of deliberation aimed at households or short periods. Rank in leadership follows the scope and duration of the good that a person's deliberation can reach. This means cunning that serves an evil end does not count as deliberative virtue at all.

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