Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Plato
Dr. Laurie Santos and Yale Professor Tamar Gendler explore Plato's ancient Greek insights on internal conflict, likening the self to a charioteer managing two horses: appetite and spirit. They discuss how to control desires by removing temptations and cultivating habits to achieve a happier, more flourishing life.
Deep Dive Analysis
14 Topic Outline
Introduction to Internal Conflict and Ancient Wisdom
Plato's Academy and its Intellectual Environment
The Republic: Plato's Comprehensive Theory of Ideal Society
The Story of Leontius: Illustrating Internal Strife
Plato's Metaphors for the Divided Self: Human, Lion, Monster
The Charioteer Metaphor: Reason, Noble Horse, and Wild Horse
Plato's Strategies for Reining in the Horse of Appetite
Ancient Wisdom Aligns with Modern Habit Science
Homer's Odyssey and Ulysses' Temptation Control
Plato's Approach to Training the Horse of Spirit
Cultivating Habits for the Spirit Horse
Plato's Academy as an Example of Spirit Horse Training
Personal Application of Plato's Insights
The Legacy of Greek Philosophy: From Plato to Stoicism
6 Key Concepts
Plato's Academy
An ancient Athenian institution founded by Plato, serving as a university-like space where young men engaged in deep intellectual conversations with Socrates and Plato. It explored fundamental ideas across philosophy, politics, mathematics, and metaphysics, aiming to understand how individuals could flourish.
The Republic
One of Plato's most famous dialogues, written as a play with Socrates as the main character, exploring a 'theory of everything.' It describes what an ideal society would look like for human beings to best flourish, covering topics from mathematics to political theory.
Leontius Story
A narrative from Plato's Republic illustrating the internal conflict within every human being. Leontius struggles with an appetite to look at corpses despite his disgust, ultimately giving in, demonstrating the internal strife and multiple parts pulling a person in different directions.
Plato's Charioteer Metaphor
From Plato's Phaedrus, this analogy describes a human being as a charioteer (reason) driving a chariot with two horses. One is a noble horse (spirit, interested in honor and social interaction), and the other is a wild horse (appetite, interested in fundamental physical desires like food and sleep).
Horse of Appetite
Represents the part of human beings driven by fundamental physical desires shared with non-human animals, such as hunger, sleep, and physical pleasure. Plato believed this horse's attractions cannot be changed, so it must be managed primarily through avoiding temptations.
Horse of Spirit
Represents the part of human beings interested in honor, social interaction, and what others think of them. Unlike the horse of appetite, Plato considered this horse trainable through argument, explanation, and cultivating habits that make desired actions pleasurable.
7 Questions Answered
Plato recognized that within every human being, there are multiple parts pulling a person in different directions, leading to internal strife. He believed that understanding and controlling these divided selves is fundamental to human flourishing and happiness.
Plato uses the story of Leontius, who struggles between his disgust and his morbid curiosity to look at corpses, eventually giving in. This demonstrates the internal tension and the feeling of being overpowered by one's appetites.
Plato's charioteer metaphor describes a human being as a charioteer (reason) driving a chariot with two horses: a noble horse (spirit, representing honor and social desires) and a wild horse (appetite, representing fundamental physical desires). The goal is for the charioteer to control these horses to move forward productively.
Plato suggests treating the horse of appetite like an animal whose fundamental attractions won't change. The best strategy is to avoid temptations, and if avoidance isn't possible, to keep attention away from them, using willpower only as a last resort.
The horse of spirit, unlike appetite, is trainable. Plato suggests cultivating habits that make desired actions natural and pleasurable for this part of oneself, using argument and explanation to guide it towards honor and social interaction.
Many ancient strategies, such as avoiding temptations and making desired actions salient, foreshadow modern scientific understanding of habit formation. People good at self-control often excel at setting up environments where they don't need to exert constant willpower.
The horse of appetite is best controlled by environmental design (removing temptations, blocking access) because its fundamental attractions don't change. The horse of spirit, however, can be trained through habit formation and making desired actions pleasurable, as it responds to argument and explanation.
10 Actionable Insights
1. Remove Temptations Proactively
To control appetites, the best strategy is to avoid temptations by removing them from your environment, such as turning off Wi-Fi, not having tempting food in the house, or blocking access to distracting sounds, thereby preventing the need for constant self-control.
2. Make Desired Actions Obvious
To encourage positive behaviors, make them as easy and automatic as possible by placing cues in your environment, like having your workout shoes out or your gratitude journal visible, so your brain is prompted to act.
3. Physically Restrain from Temptation
If you cannot remove a temptation, physically restrain yourself from acting on it, such as tying yourself to a mast to hear tempting music without jumping overboard, or putting your phone in a Ziploc bag to prevent touching it.
4. Divert Attention from Temptations
When in the presence of temptations that cannot be removed, actively keep your attention away from them, as this is the second-best strategy after complete avoidance to prevent succumbing to desires.
5. Cultivate Habits for Spirit Horse
To control the ‘spirit horse’ (drives for honor and social interaction), cultivate habits that make desired behaviors natural and pleasurable over time, rather than relying on constant conscious effort.
6. Make Good Habits Pleasurable
Train your ‘spirit horse’ by making desired actions familiar and enjoyable; as you get good at something, you take pleasure in doing it, which co-opts its energy to pull you in the right direction.
7. Establish Consistent Social Routines
Create regular routines for social interactions, such as a daily family dinner, to make spending time with loved ones automatic and enjoyable, strengthening connections without conscious decision-making.
8. Practice Daily Gratitude Journaling
Regularly write in a gratitude journal to foster connection and pleasure, thereby training your ‘spirit horse’ to naturally engage in reflective practices that contribute to well-being.
9. Control Perception and Framing
Actively control how you represent the world to yourself by framing situations as either in or out of your control, and decide whether to let external factors bother you, as this mental frame can become self-fulfilling.
10. Willpower as Last Resort
Recognize that willpower alone is often insufficient to control strong appetites; it should be used only in the most difficult situations where other strategies of avoidance or distraction are not possible.
5 Key Quotes
Look for yourselves, you evil eyes. Take your fill of this beautiful sight.
Leontius (as quoted by Plato)
The story says human beings are the kinds of creatures who are propelled forward by physical desires and by social desires. And the key to human flourishing, the way to move fast on the path through life, is to make sure that you're in control of those horses, that the parts of you that are passion and energy are pulling you in the direction that you want to go instead of in some wild other direction that they're being pulled.
Tamar Gendler
The best way to keep the dog from eating that food is not to put the food in front of the dog.
Tamar Gendler
One of the things that's really interesting is that people who are best at self-control are actually best at setting up situations in which they don't have to exercise self-control.
Tamar Gendler
The horse of appetite is never going to change what it's attracted to. The horse of spirit is a trainable horse.
Tamar Gendler
2 Protocols
Controlling the Horse of Appetite
Plato (as interpreted by Tamar Gendler)- Avoid temptations by removing them from your environment (e.g., turn off Wi-Fi, don't have tempting food in the house).
- If in the presence of temptations, keep yourself from looking at them or focusing your attention on them.
- Only in the most difficult situations, when avoidance and distraction fail, use willpower or self-control.
Training the Horse of Spirit
Plato (as interpreted by Tamar Gendler)- Cultivate habits that make desired actions natural and pleasurable for the spirit horse.
- Engage in activities that you want to do, and over time, you will take pleasure in doing them as you get good at them (e.g., writing in a gratitude journal and feeling connected).
- Use social interaction and prestige to draw yourself or others towards desired activities (e.g., Plato's Academy attracting students).