the good life

• WHAT IS THE GOOD LIFE?

  • People have different ideas on what constitutes it.
• Wrong pursuits may lead to tragic consequences.
• Correct pursuits may lead to flourishing
• GOOD LIFE IN ARISTOTELEAN VIEW - the understandability of the good is based on the idea of what is good for the specific entity under consideration.
• NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 2:2 - All human activities aim at some good. 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
• EU - good (nicomachean)
• DAMONIA - life (nicomachean)
• 4 PILLARS OF THE GOOD LIFE

  • HEALTH
  • WEALTH
  • LOVE
  • HAPPINESS
• CONFUCIUS - the golden rule of "what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others"
• MATERIALISM - matter is the fundamental substance in nature and that all things, including mental aspects and consciousness are results of material interactions
• 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.
  • "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die."
• hedonist - strives to maximize net pleasure
• STOICISM

  • espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one must learn to distance oneself and be apathetic.
• THEISM - Belief in the existence of the supreme being or deities and describes the classical conception of God
• HUMANISM - 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.
• Mark Manson - when asked what do you want out of life, he said " I want to be happy and have a great family and a job I like"