STAS 3

• The good life


  People have different ideas of what constitutes the good life
• Wrong pursuits


  May lead to tragic consequences
• Correct pursuits


  May lead to flourishing
• All human activities aim at some good
• Nicomachean Ethics 2:2: 'Every art and human inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has been rightly declared as that at which all things aim.'
• Nicomachean Ethics and Modern Concepts

  Eudaimonia, Good, Life, Happiness/Welfare, Virtue
• Confucius: 'What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.'
• Materialism


  A form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental aspects and consciousness are results of material interactions
• Materialism

  • The first materialists were the atomists in Ancient Greece
  • Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primary belief is that the world is made up of and is controlled by the tiny invisible units in the world called atomos or seeds
  • Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world
• Classification of Materialism

  • Naive materialism
  • Dialectical materialism
  • Metaphysical materialism
• Naive materialism


  The unquestioned and unquestioning belief in the primacy of the physical universe
• Dialectical materialism


  A way of understanding reality; whether thoughts, emotions, or the material world
• Metaphysical materialism


  A philosophical approach that argues that all philosophical, emotional, mental, and conscious states are a result from the material/physical world. Therefore, everything can be explained by looking at matter or ''the real world
• Hedonism


  • A school of thought that argues that the pursuit of pleasure and intrinsic goods are the primary or most important goals of human life
  • A hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus pain) but when having finally gained that pleasure, happiness remains stationary

  
• Stoicism


  • Another school of thought led by Epicurus
  • The stoics espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one must learn to distance oneself and be apathetic (showing no concern, interest or enthusiasm)
  • The path to happiness for humans is found in accepting this moment as it presents itself, by not allowing ourselves to be controlled by our desire for pleasure, or our fear of pain
• Theism

  • The belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or Deities
  • Describes the classical conception of God
  • The ultimate basis of happiness is the communication with God
  • Monotheism- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism
• Humanism


  • A school of thought that espouses the freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to legislate his own laws, free from the shackles of a God that monitors and controls
  • Refers to nontheistic life stance centered on human agency and looking to science rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world
• Aristotle: We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us. •
• Buddhism: Hurt not others with that which pains thyself. •
• Christianity: D unto others as you would have them do unto you
• THE HAPPINESS PURSUIT

  There is a wide agreement that happiness is the greatest human good
• Good life- happiness and virtue
• Virtue- intellectual and moral
• The 4 Pillar of the Good life

  Health, wealth, love and happiness
• Living an authentic life means living with deep acceptance on the facticity of death resulting to a life lived - Heidegger
• The unexamined life is not worth living for - Socrates
• Virtue is the excellence of character that empowers one to do good and be good
• Refined foods


  What the narrator gave up eating when he met his girlfriend
• 20% of items on the shelves of the grocery store do not contain sugar
• Americans eat 100 pounds of sugar a year
• Australians eat 40 teaspoons of sugar a day
• Glucose


  Fuel: major source of energy for the body's cells
• How the narrator must eat sugar

  Hidden in other foods and not in common sugar containing foods like ice cream and candy
• The narrator ate 20 teaspoons of sugar in his breakfast
• Metabolic Disease

  Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease
• After 18 days, the narrator started showing signs of fatty liver disease
• How blood sugar affects mood

  The fluctuation causes adrenaline which can cause anxiety
• Mai Wiru


  Good food: program cut, the town is struggling to cope with the spiraling rates of diabetes and kidney problems
• The first item to go after Mai Wiru started was Coca-Cola
• After Mai Wiru was taken away, the declining health of the people