CHAPTER 5 - STS (for finals)

• Good Life


  One of the oldest philosophical questions, a common concern as everyone desires a good life and avoids a bad one
• The idea of the good life is one that needs careful examination
• Good (in the context of a good life)


  Expressing moral approval, including 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 (according to Plato)


  • Experience inner harmony
  • Wicked people (despite their wealth and pleasures) are fundamentally in conflict with themselves and the world
• Plato supports his argument by speculating about an afterlife where virtuous people are rewarded and wicked ones are punished
• Piety (in religion)


  Following commandments and rituals, seen as virtuous
• In most religions, virtue is expected to be rewarded, either in this life or the afterlife
• Hedonism


  The perspective that pleasure is the ultimate good and the reason for living
• While the term "hedonist" may carry negative connotations, Epicurus appreciated various pleasures but insisted that a good life must also be virtuous
• Good life (in Western culture)


  Often seen as hedonistic, emphasizing subjective experiences and defining happiness as feeling good
• Socrates


  • Emphasizes virtue
• Epicurus


  • Emphasizes pleasure
• Aristotle


  • Sees the good life in a more comprehensive way, believes that we all want to be happy, and that happiness has intrinsic value rather than just instrumental value
• Many people today automatically think of happiness in subjectivist terms, as a positive state of mind
• Aristotle agrees with Socrates that to live the good life one must be a morally good person, and also agrees with Epicurus that a happy life will involve many and varied pleasurable experiences
• The Ten Golden Rules on Living a Good Life (by Soupios and Mourdoukoutas)


  1. Examine life, engage life with a vengeance

  2. Worry only about the things that are in your control

  3. Treasure Friendship

  4. Experience True Pleasure

  5. Master Yourself

  6. Avoid Excess

  7. Be a Responsible Human Being

  8. Don't Be a Prosperous Fool

  9. 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

  Evildoing 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
• 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
• Plato's Gorgias is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato
• Sophist is a paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated in popular through with moral skepticism and specious reasoning.