Elevating Existence: How Reason Shapes an Excellent Life

At the heart of today's conversation is a simple but powerful idea: logic alone isn't enough to live a truly excellent life. The most important decisions we face require more than just logical thinking—they need to be guided by our virtues, our sense of purpose, and our connections with others. When we combine these elements, we make choices that align with what matters most to us, leading to a life of real meaning and fulfillment. Craig draws on Aristotle's wisdom here—he understood that living well means living in harmony with our nature and using reason as our guide. But he knew that logic by itself falls short. As we explore how logic and reason work together, think about how these ideas might light the path toward your own flourishing life.

In this episode, Craig talks about the difference between logic and reason, and why it matters for living well. While logical thinking is certainly important, it's just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to navigating our complex lives. Making good decisions—decisions that lead to a life of excellence—requires us to consider more than just cold facts. We need to bring in moral wisdom and emotional understanding, areas where pure logic often falls short.

Aristotle called this kind of flourishing life "eudaimonia"—a life of excellence lived according to our true nature, with reason as our guide. I've found it helpful to think about four pillars that support this excellent life: virtue, reason, connection, and purpose. These pillars help us figure out the right thing to do in all kinds of situations. Virtue should be our compass, pointing us toward actions that reflect the kind of person we want to be. When things aren't clear-cut, our sense of purpose can help guide us. And our connections with others—they enrich every choice we make.

Craig encourages you to approach your decisions thoughtfully, with both ethical considerations and meaningful relationships in mind. The good news? This journey toward excellence isn't something you have to perfect overnight. It's an ongoing process that gets easier with practice. Over time, making decisions in line with your virtues and purpose becomes more natural, even intuitive. Craig's hope is that these ideas don't just make sense to you intellectually, but that they empower you—giving you the tools to build a life that's truly rich in meaning, connection, and fulfillment.

Takeaways:

• Logic, while precise and structured, may lead one astray if followed exclusively.
• To achieve an excellent life, one must transcend mere logic in decision-making processes.
• Virtue, purpose, and connection are essential elements that enhance logical reasoning in life.
• The pursuit of excellence is a continuous journey that necessitates ongoing reflection and action.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Logic is precise, cold andrigid, and following its rules perfectly
might still lead you down thewrong path. In today's episode, I
talk about how to go beyondpure logic to use reason effectively
in creating an excellent life.You'll discover why the most important
decisions in your life requiremore than just logical thinking and

(00:23):
how to combine logic withvirtue, purpose and connection to
make choices that trulymatter. Welcome to Live well and
Flourish, where I help youunderstand what it means to live
a flourishing life. I'm yourhost, Craig Van Slyke. If you're

(00:48):
ready to think beyond materialand external success, if you're ready
to take control of who you areand the kind of life you live, if
you're ready to flourish, thisis the podcast for you. The use of
reason, your ability to thinklogically when making decisions,
is critical to living anexcellent life. When I first learned

(01:08):
of what Aristotle had to sayabout excellence, or what he called
eudaimonia, or however youpronounce it, I was kind of puzzled.
Aristotle can be that way.Basically, he believed that an excellent
life is one that's livedaccording to human nature as guided
by reason. My first thoughtwas, what in the world does that

(01:29):
mean? Through more reading andconversations with my philosopher
friend Andrea, I started tounderstand what Aristotle meant.
I'll save the nature part foranother day. Today, I want to focus
on reason. Reason, to me, isbeyond just the application of logic,
although logical thinking iscertainly part of it. But it's only

(01:51):
part of it. Logic alone is notenough. Other factors need to come
into play to turn logic intoreason. Since this podcast is about
living an excellent life,let's look at the connection between
logic and reason in thatcontext. If this sounds a little
esoteric, I promise you whatI'm about to say is not esoteric.

(02:13):
It's extremely practical tothose who seek excellence in their
lives. That includes you,right? In an earlier episode, I talked
about the four pillars ofliving an excellent virtue, reason,
connection, and purpose. Theseare all intertwined in interesting
ways. Today we're going tofocus on reason. Logic is cold and

(02:36):
well logical. Logical doesn'thave a goal other than logic. It's
precise and doesn't care aboutanything but the rules of logic.
In fact, when I took a logicclass. In class, we typically used
symbols rather than words. Itdidn't matter what we were being
logical about as long as wefollowed the rules of logic. Logic

(02:59):
makes sure the mechanics ofyour thinking are sound. But that
is not enough to guide anexcellent life. You need something
to apply logic to that goesbeyond the rules of logic. You need
an end game, a goal. That'swhere the rest of the pillars come
in. They provide the targetsfor your logical thinking. In an

(03:21):
excellent life, virtue guidesall. The excellent life is one lived
in pursuit of virtue, thosecharacteristics that mark an excellent
person. If you're trying todecide between two courses of action,
the task is to figure outwhich one most closely aligns with
virtue. That is task numberone. Logic can help you make that

(03:44):
decision. But virtue providesthe overriding goal. If logic determines
that action A is betteraligned with the virtues you seek
than action B, then you gowith A. Sometimes, though, both actions
are equally aligned withvirtue, then you need a new goal.
This is where purpose entersthe game. Again, using logic, try

(04:08):
to figure out which of thealternatives best allows you to serve
your purpose. You take thecourse of action that best allows
you to pursue your purpose.It's that simple. Remember, in this
scenario, you've alreadydetermined that both align with virtue.
Both of the alternatives alignwith virtue. So purpose is the new

(04:28):
guide for your decision. Well,let's take this a step further. Suppose
that both alternative actionsserve your life's purpose equally.
In my experience, this ispretty rare, but let's just go with
it. In this case, connection,the fourth pillar is your guide.
Use logic to determine whichalternative will strengthen your

(04:51):
connection with others. Thengo with that alternative. If both
are equal in this respect,flip a coin. You can't go wrong either
way. Hopefully all of thatmakes sense. Logic gives you clear,
correct thinking. But virtue,purpose and connection guide the
practical application of thelogical thinking. I want to make

(05:13):
two additional points beforeclosing. First, I've used the word
pursue a few times today. Thatword is critical to living an excellent
life. That's something I sayor write quite a bit. Living an excellent
life. Both pursue and livingare words that imply an ongoing activity.

(05:34):
That's the nature ofexcellence. It's a never ending journey,
not a destination. To quoteSteve Jobs, the journey is the reward.
Second, all of this might seemexhausting. The good news is that
with conscious practice, youwill start to make these decisions
without conscious thought.Because you will simply be a person

(05:58):
who applies logic to live alife of virtue, purpose and connection.
You'll make the hundreds oftiny decisions that guide daily life
without much consciousthought. You'll just act kindly as
second nature now, not asecond nature, as your true nature.
Until next time, keep usingthat reason, my friends.