Toward eudaimonia: Building cities that make us flourish

Originally published in Manila Bulletin

Let us begin not with the city, but with the purpose of the city. For everything that exists, exists for the sake of some good. The flute is made for music, the ship for sailing, and the city — the polis — is formed for the good life.

Yet modern cities seem to forget this. We build for speed, for capital, for expansion — but rarely for virtue, rarely for happiness in its truest form.

If we wish to build happier cities, we must ask not what makes a city large, rich, or efficient, but what makes it good.

The city as a moral community

The city is not merely a place where people live. It is a community of citizens, organized not just to avoid injustice or satisfy needs, but to live well. The city exists to cultivate eudaimonia — a state of flourishing, of living according to reason and virtue.

A city designed only for trade or security is no better than a herd of animals kept together for protection. True cities educate the soul as much as they shelter the body. They are, in a word, political — in the highest sense: structured for the shared pursuit of the good.

Space shapes soul

Our surroundings shape our character. Thus, architecture and urban design are not neutral — they are ethical tools. A cramped, chaotic city breeds impatience and selfishness. A city full of vast motorways and isolated towers encourages alienation. By contrast, a city with public gathering places, walkable paths, and beautiful proportions trains citizens to deliberate, to encounter one another, to aspire for harmony.

Let there be agoras where people may gather not just to trade, but to speak. Let there be gardens and gymnasia where the body and mind may be cultivated. Let neighborhoods be of a scale where a citizen may know her neighbors, and not feel lost in a multitude.

The city should be structured not only for productivity, but for contemplation and friendship, for these are the highest joys of a rational being.

Law, virtue, and equity

Laws are the soul of the city. But laws alone do not create justice — they must be oriented toward virtue. A good city uses laws to encourage the development of character, not merely to punish wrongdoing.

Justice demands that the city provide for all its citizens, not just the fortunate. Inequality that alienates the poor or allows wealth to dominate politics is not stable — nor is it just. The mean, the balance, is always the path of wisdom. Let cities care for both excellence and equity.

If you wish to see whether a city is happy, look not to its towers or treasuries, but to its children, its elders, and its strangers. How are they treated? Are they safe? Are they able to live in dignity? For the city is happiest not when some flourish, but when most do.

From private interest to public good

The modern city often forgets its citizens are not consumers, but moral agents. When we reduce the city to a marketplace, we degrade its higher purpose.

Let planners, architects, and leaders remember: The greatest good of the city is not its GDP, but the virtue and well-being of its people. That is the end we must build toward.

Let us design cities not only for function, but for friendship. Not only for shelter, but for soulcraft. For only when we live well together, do we truly live happily at all.

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