Telos

Coined by Aristotle, Telos (τέλος) is one of my favorite concepts in Greek philosophy.

Telos is the ultimate thing you're aiming at, your main ambition, your life goal, the thing that drives you. Once you know what it is, then you decide on strengths of character which will enable you to arrive at that goal, followed by a process of moral training by which these strengths turn into habits.

So you have three things: Your main goal, the character to get you there, and daily habits that are character-forming.

Do you know what your telos is?

I would love it if someone asked me that at a bar instead of what I did for a living. What a terrible question. Sometimes I get roped into it, thinking that work is my identity. I start believing my life ambition is to be Ellie Goulding, or a great film director, but those things don't serve as very good "ultimates." This awful culture has us tricked into believing that it's something we do, when it's supposed to be something we are becoming.

Aristotle's telos was a fully flourishing human being, rounded, wise, and formed in character. He had four principal virtues: courage, justice, prudence, and temperance. He said these were, "The hinges upon which the great door to human fulfillment and flourishing would swing open" (15).

Fulfillment. Flourishing. Like that swimming sensation in your nerves, when every part of your being is coming together, and coming to life. Aristotle was onto something, and Jesus only added to it, by inviting you to live that kind of life with people who have the same goal. It doesn't always look like the illusions of fortune, status, or success, but it has everything else we're hungry for, like love, contentment, knowing and being known.

I think that kind of telos brings out a certain magical quality of life, and I'm lucky to have discovered it so soon.


Quotes taken from N.T. Wright, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters.