So what I want to do is talk about this concept of happiness,

sometimes philosophers these days talk of flourishing

as the word they use, and I want to go back to Aristotle at the beginning.

So Aristotle in his Nomachian ethics, a book he wrote at least ostensibly for his son,

not to make him ethical but to explain what ethics is about, starts fairly early with

this little argument.

We make bridles, he says.

Why do we make bridles?

Well, we make bridles to help us ride horses.

And then soon, he doesn't, I'm going to embroider the argument a little bit, but the ideas are his.

Why ride horses?

What's the, right?

So if, so we make bridles to ride horses, but if riding horses is pointless, making

bridles then is going to be pointless.

But fortunately, we have a use for riding horses.

For Aristotle, that's winning battles.

You wouldn't do it for fun or something like that.

And he's talking to the noble classes who wouldn't be doing it just for farm labor or something.

So we ride horses to win battles.

Now we might ask, you know, so what's the point of winning battles?

And here, I'm guessing what Aristotle might be thinking.

We win battles to preserve our freedom.

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