STS: Chapter 5

• Good Life


  One of the oldest philosophical questions, a common concern as everyone desires a good life and avoids a bad one
• Good Life


  • Requires careful examination as the question is intricate with hidden complexities
• Good


  Used to express moral approval, includes qualities like courage, honesty, trustworthiness, kindness, selflessness, generosity, loyalty
• Living a good life

  Involves not just pursuing personal pleasure but also dedicating time to activities benefiting others, like engaging with family, friends, work, or voluntary efforts
• Socrates: 'It's better to endure injustice than to commit it. A good person who suffers and dies horribly is more fortunate than a corrupt individual who gains wealth and power dishonestly.'
• Morally good people


  • Experience inner harmony, while wicked people (despite their wealth and pleasures) are fundamentally in conflict with themselves and the world
• Virtue


  Morally good behavior, expected to be rewarded in the afterlife according to many religions
• Hedonism


  The perspective that pleasure is the ultimate good and the reason for living
• Epicureanism


  Appreciates various pleasures but insists that a good life must also be virtuous
• Happiness


  Something valued not as a means to some other end but for its own sake, having intrinsic value rather than instrumental value
• Aristotle's view of the good life


  • A comprehensive view that sees happiness as the ultimate goal, involving both moral virtue and pleasurable experiences
• The Ten Golden Rules on Living a Good Life

  • Examine life, engage life with a vengeance
  • Worry only about the things that are in your control
  • Treasure Friendship
  • Experience True Pleasure
  • Master Yourself
  • Avoid Excess
  • Be a Responsible Human Being
  • Don't Be a Prosperous Fool
  • Don't Do Evil to Others
  • 10. Kindness towards others tends to be rewarded
• Friendship


  Reciprocal attachment that fills the need for affiliation. Cannot be acquired in the marketplace, must be nurtured and treasured in relations permeated with trust and amity.
• True Pleasure


  Avoid shallow and transient pleasures. Keep your life simple. Seek calming pleasures that contribute to peace of mind. True pleasure is disciplined and restrained.
• Master Yourself


  Don't let external influences limit your thinking and actions. Be honest with yourself, avoiding beliefs that are only convenient for you. True freedom involves an internal struggle against negative thoughts and spiritual forces that hinder a healthy life. Achieving self-control requires being brutally honest with yourself.
• Avoid Excess


  Live life in harmony and balance. Avoid excesses. Even good things, pursued or attained without moderation, can become a source of misery and suffering.
• Be a Responsible Human Being

  Approach yourself with honesty and thoroughness; maintain a kind of spiritual hygiene; stop the blame-shifting for your errors and shortcomings.
• Don't Be a Prosperous Fool

  Prosperity by itself is not a cure-all against an ill-led life and may be a source of dangerous foolishness. Money is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the good life, for happiness and wisdom.
• Don't Do Evil to Others

  Evil doing is a dangerous habit, a kind of reflex too quickly resorted to and too easily justified that has a lasting and damaging effect upon the quest for the good life. Harming others claims two victims—the receiver of the harm, and the victimizer, the one who does harm.
• Kindness towards others


  Kindness to others is a good habit that supports and reinforces the quest for the good life. Helping others bestows a sense of satisfaction that has two beneficiaries—the beneficiary, the receiver of the help, and the benefactor, the one who provides the help.
• The purpose of existence comes from thinking about philosophy, religion, and science, exploring topics like social connections, consciousness, happiness
• Aristotle


  • Believed that each person's life has a purpose
  • The goal of life is earthly happiness or flourishing, achievable through reason and the development of virtue
  • Encourages individuals to use their abilities to the fullest, finding happiness and fulfillment in realizing their potential
  • Emphasizes the importance of purpose, autonomy, and excellence in human achievements, stating that people should take pride in being proficient at what they do
  • Highlights our natural inclination to seek truth, pursue moral excellence, and bring our ideals to life through actions in the world
• Plato


  • Known for his idealistic belief in universals
  • His Theory of Forms suggests that universal concepts, unlike physical objects, exist as heavenly forms
  • In the Republic dialogue, Socrates discusses the Form of the Good
  • Plato's theory on justice in the soul is connected to the concept of happiness, which is crucial to understanding life's meaning in Platonism
  • According to Plato, life's purpose is to achieve the highest knowledge, represented by the Idea of the Good, which is the source of utility and value for all good and just things
• Rolando Gripaldo


  • A Filipino philosopher who argues that the concept of the public good primarily has a politico-ethical meaning, encompassing politico-ethical senses
  • The public good benefits the general public, pursued by government with a service focus and private corporations with a profit focus
  • Mentions mixed public goods pursued by private organizations with a service motive
  • Government corporations prioritize service, although profit is not ruled out
  • Also discusses public bads like corruption, pollution, and crimes
• Public Good


  • Benefits by its use, the communal or national public
  • Can be perceived at two levels: 1) comes from the people themselves, where individuals recognize the public good as beneficial to most, if not all of them, and this utilitarian consideration becomes an ethical standard, helping the public unite through civil society for their shared benefits; 2) comes from the local or national government, which assumes with the utilitarian perspective that certain projects or services are desired by the public for their common welfare, viewing them as public goods (e.g. national defense, education, public health, ports/airports and highways, social services, postal services)
• Unity (bonding together for individual interests) and subsidiarity (working together for the common good) are crucial aspects of a national public good from the community's viewpoint