...The Good Life In life there are many questions to be answered; where do we come from? What does life hold for us, is there anything after death? In ancient times several centuries before the birth of Christ, there were two Greek philosophers who sought the answer to one question. Thucydides and Plato’s ventured to know what is a “good life”; is it having everything you want or need through whatever means necessary? Is it an enlightenment of the mind, body and soul? These two philosopher’s ideas of what the “good life” was differed greatly. Through Thucydides perspective during the Peloponnesian war. Living a good life meant to be “materially self-sufficient”. During the prelude to the war between Athens and Melos; a sub colony of the Spartans connected through heritage. Thucydides explains that “might” makes right in times of war not justice. He believed that to have a good life one must be strong, that “the strong do what they will, the weak will suffer what they must, and morality is irrelevant” (Newton CHP1 P1). Such beliefs seem to hold the life of man as a selfish one Thucydides’ life was lived off the theory that there was no place for the likes of justice in the traditional meaning of the word. That to be happy one should need to take what one needs, and if they could not, then they were weak and could not live the good life. Contrary to Thucydides views on the “good life”, Plato believed that enlightenment and the pursuit of knowledge was what made a good life not...
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...Perception of the Good Life Everyone has their own view on what success means to them. Some people believe that money and/or expensive material items determine how successful a person is. Other people believe that success is measured by how happy a person is with his or her life, by measuring their job satisfaction or their family life. I believe that a person is truly successful when he or she has lived their life to the fullest and is completely content with where they have wound up in the end and has no regrets. In this brief essay I will be telling you about my view on true success in life. I will start off by telling you why material success could be included in my opinion, then I will tell you why a good quality of life is a big part, and finally I will tell you my exact view on what I want my future to look like so that I know that I have, in my opinion, had a successful life. First, I will begin with some of the material items that some people think they need to be successful and why. People that think they need material items to be successful in life probably will not go a day in their life without working and on top of that they will probably end up hating their job. This however will not change their view on what it means to be successful. There is no doubt that they will be happy with the beach house in Florida or the million dollar Lamborghini Maserati, but for what exactly? To be miserable at the job that has gotten you to this point in life. All of that sounds...
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...Defining the “Good Life” Growing up my dad always told me that I will never be able to look back at everything I accomplished and say “I made it,” he said I might be able to when I retire but not anytime soon. I came of age with this mentality in the back of my mind, I worked, never becoming complacent with where I was. I was only focussed on where I wanted to be and that wasn’t there in that moment. In that moment I was focussed on one thing, the “good life.” In that moment, as I powered down my coffee trying to study, it wasn’t because I wanted to learn, but because I wanted my Ferrari. I was studying business not for pleasure but to make money. Yet by pursuing these material good was I pursuing the best life for me? Was I pursuing my personal definition of the “good life” or the definition of the “good life” inspired by people like Kanye West, who might even hate their “good life?” People who have found their higher level pleasures but are beginning to think it isn’t worth the trade off. Failure to question and change said trade off will only result in this person fall victim to the tyranny of custom just as Kanye West did: a man who wrote a song titled “The Good Life.” Though the idea of the “good life” is subjective there are many factors to take into account but ultimately you must decide for yourself whether the life you’re living is your definition of the “good life.” Kanye West is a singer/ songwriter and is famous for being obnoxious, he produces amazing music...
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...Hedonism Vs. Desire Satisfaction Theory Living the “good life” to many that means having lots of money, nice cars and dating beautiful women. However, to philosophers it isn’t that easy, to them living the good life has to do with either the theory of hedonism or desire satisfaction. Hedonism simply means that the only intrinsic good is pleasure and the only intrinsic bad is pain. Desire satisfaction theory is the theory that life is well when our desires our filled and bad when they are not. Both hedonism and desire satisfaction theory have their strengths and weaknesses. Hedonism and desire satisfaction theory are both vague enough to have many different models of the “good life” and they both allow personal authority. Another strength is that hedonism follows common sense, as for the desire satisfaction theory, it avoids objective values therefore he values are always relative to oneself. Now it wouldn’t be philosophy if both these theories didn’t have arguments against them. Although they both sound simple and perfect they have their weaknesses. For hedonism the first argument that could be made against it is that pleasure isn’t the only good in the world. For example someone who is working out might not enjoy the pain during the workout but exercise is good for everyone. A second argument weakness would be that because hedonists don’t let bad news affect them they wouldn’t have motivation to get better because they don’t let bad news bother them. For DST one of...
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...A good life is what everybody wants. But what does it mean to have a good life? Everybody has different ideas of a good life. Some people think more about themselves, others like to help people. Both are examples of good life, but as long as you are happy with yourself, you are having a good life. In my essays, I ¡ ¦ll tell you my ideas of a good life. You might not totally agree with me, but I ¡ ¦ll guarantee you will learn something from it. First and I personally think it ¡ ¦s the most important quality of a good life is happiness. Nobody tell you to get happy, it is something that you have to require by yourself. When you are happy, you feel like you have the power to do anything, say anything, and go anywhere you want. When you are happy, you see everything positive, then you will be nice to your co-workers or classmates. If you are happy, you will have more friends. The more friends you have, the happier you will be. It ¡ ¦s like going in a positive cycle. If you are unhappy all the time and not very cooperate with other people, you will most likely to get no friends. When you don ¡ ¦t have friends, you feel sad and feel left out. Now you are going on a negative cycle and it ¡ ¦s hard to get out of that. So it ¡ ¦s important to start of in a positive attitude. My second idea is friendship. I think it is just as important as happiness. Like I stated earlier, when you have friends, you can be happy. A really close friend can be a second self. From a Roman saying, ¡ §A...
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...mTELECOURSE STUDY GUIDE FOR The Examined Life FOURTH EDITION author J. P. White Chair, Department of Philosophy Santa Barbara City College contributing author Manuel Velasquez Professor of Philosophy Santa Clara University This Telecourse Study Guide for The Examined Life is part of a collegelevel introduction to philosophy telecourse developed in conjunction with the video series The Examined Life, and the text Philosophy: A Text with Readings, tenth edition, by Manuel Velasquez, The Charles Dirksen Professor, Santa Clara University. The television series The Examined Life was designed and produced by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, Netherlands Educational Broadcasting Corporation (TELEAC/NOT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2002, 1999 by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 150 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, California 91105-1937. ISBN: 0-495-10302-0 Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Lesson One — What is Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...The Good Life as a Meaningful Life Life… An everyday task in which each and every human being participates. We interact, procreate, strive to better our standards of living and look for the answers to questions, which in our society, have not yet been answered. This task which demands our outmost attention and participation is a task in which everyone takes part. Yet we do not know much about it. We do not know the aim of life, how it should be lived, we do not even have a clear definition for the phenomena in which we all participate. There are many attempts to give a definition to life and explain what a good or meaningful life is or should be. Each one of these outlooks which can be described as theories have their own pros and cons. If all the pros of the theories are chained together, will that give the ultimate meaning to life? Are broad theories like that of Aristotle pointing in the direction of the good or meaningful life? Or is life and the meaning there of just as broad or narrow as an individual chooses to make it for himself? One of the popular approaches to the meaning of life is the teleological approach. This approach suggests that life is a process in which you are working towards an ultimate goal. The theory does not state that the final end is a point at which you can stop trying, but rather that you are continually adding to the meaningfulness of your life by participating in the process of reaching your goal from one situation to the next. This theory...
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...Nature of the Good Life Greg PHI-286-OL-008; JUN-2016 Thomas Edison State University Abstract This paper explores the ethical dilemma of happiness and the nature of good life. The paper is broken into two sections to support both parts of the first written assignment for Contemporary Ethics (PHI-286 from TESU; Thomas Edison State University). The first discussion emphasizes the differences between the ways we act in society, whether it is to support our own self-interest or for the greater good. Plato’s The Republic (Newton 2003) is the premise of the first section, which notes the moral dilemma of the nature of man from a normative standpoint. Juxtapose to the normative view is the empirical view, as claimed by Thucydides, that considers the ethics of imperialism. The second discussion weighs the biblical view against the Utilitarianism view of the individual in society, and how they should act. The biblical and Utilitarianism views agree that humans should act for the greater good of society, however each view differs in its derivation and outcome. Section 1: Athenians The nature of the good life for centuries has been pondered among thousands of sophists. Is it better to live your life selfishly looking out for your own well-being or to look out for the improvement of the society in which you live? Thucydides (c. 421 B.C.E.) claims that is it best, for society, if those that are ‘strong’ enough to lead do so for the common good of society. ...
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...When my alarm rings every morning at 6:30, I know I have two choices; continue to slumber in my dreams or wake up and chase them. The good life starts with the desire to jump out of bed every morning with your chin up and spirits high to take on whatever may be thrown your way. It does not matter what type of car you drive, or what your wearing. The good life is based upon striving to reach the goals you set for yourself, performing kind, compassionate acts for others and making sure you leave behind an honorable legacy. In my mind, the good life consists of having knowledge, happiness and justice in one's soul. Knowledge is a key ingredient in leading a good life, because knowledge is power. No man woman or child will change the world by sitting on the couch watching cartoons. To make a difference, one has to not only read countless books and study hard but to pursue a number of opportunities with passion and desire. There can be no opportunity too minuscule or too broad. Wether it be reaching out to a stranger to learn from them or having a professor provide a life experience that can prepare me for a solution to a problem that I may face....
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...Hedonism, Desire Satisfaction, and a Good Life So, would you like to have a good life? I wouldn't. Well, actually I would in a sense. After all, for something to be 'good' is to be 'such as to fulfill the desires in question'. The desires in question, in this case, are my desires. To say that I do not desire a good life is to say that I do not desire a life that has those properties that I desire. However, a good life is not the only thing I want. I want a great many of things. I would like to have a good steak. A good steak is a steak is a steak that has those qualities that I desire in a steak regarding taste and size. However, I want a great many things and often find that i give up other things I would give up a good steak - I would give up the best possible steak - to fulfill sme of those other desires. I would be willing to give up a good life in exchange for some of the things that I value. That is, unless we define "a good life" to include everything that I value. In that case, giving up a good life would be impossible. What would I give it up for? It would have to be something I value more than life, but 'life' has been defined in a way that embraces all desires. We have the same problem with steaks by the way. The best of all possible steaks would be a steak that fulfilled the most possible of my desires. It would fulfill my desires with respect to taste, while leaving unthwarted my desires with respect to gaining weight. However, it would also fulfill...
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...In today’s modern age and time, many people has the belief that a good education was the key to success in life, and that only through education and education alone will they achieve such ‘success’. Indeed, I must agree with the majority that by having good education, which is in terms of getting Aces in your studies and topping in your classes, they may be ways to help you in achieving success in life. As to many people, success may be symbolized as getting a highly paid job, earning a high salary, driving in a big flashy car and living in a posh house. All of these are materials, which can be easily attained when you are very well educated as jobs will then came knocking to your door instead. However, this might not be true all the time as there may also be other exceptional cases when sometimes even if you have received good education while studying overseas, you might not get a well-paid job. This is for the reason that, the skills you have picked up overseas may not be applicable and useful in getting you the job you want in Singapore. Thus, in this case, a good education may not definitely be the way to success in life. Other than this, a good education is also not the only path to success. You will also need a spank of luck and chances to strike occasionally to make it to success. That explains why there are successful people with low academic results being published on newspaper, as they are the ones who believe in their own efforts and know how to grab hold of...
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...I read an interesting article in the June, 2012 issue of Success magazine entitled ‘Life is Good.’ The article is about entrepreneurs, Bert and John Jacobs, and their multimillion dollar t-shirt company called ‘Life is Good.’ The focus of the article is on the optimistic outlook they have and the positive message they portray through their slogan, Life is Good. This positivity ultimately led to their company’s success. The brothers faced difficulties for the first several years as success eluded them. As a last ditch effort they slapped their ‘Life is Good’ slogan on some t-shirts and attempted to peddle them at a local market. To their surprise, the shirts were an instant hit. It quickly became evident that the positivity of the simple slogan is something to which people from all walks of life can relate. The story of the Jacobs brothers and ‘Life is Good’ relates to organizational behavior in several ways. Specifically, I noticed that the brothers’ personality traits likely contributed to their eventual success. They both possess high internal locus of control believing that they control their own destiny. In the article, Bert says, “We get to choose at some level what we do with our lives.” The brothers recognize that their own choices and actions define their futures. They also show high levels of self-efficacy. They feel that they are capable of making their company successful. When times were hard and the company was not thriving they continued to believe...
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...Leslea Chestina Turner ENG 101 16 September 2015 Life is good I am a single mother. I was born in Hazard, KY. My parents are Eugene and Polly Collins. My mom died in 2005. My mom had eight children. Furthermore, my dad divorced my mom in 1984 and remarried. He and Liz had five children. In fact, my dad had 13 children altogether, nine boys and 4 girls. Two of my brothers are deceased. We have a large family. I have fifteen nieces and nephews. I had seventeen originally, but two have passed away in tragic accidents. I have numerous great nieces and nephews. I have went through some difficult times in my life. I have loved and lost my high school sweetheart to cancer. Have I gave up on life? No, I have not. Am I happy? Yes, I am and I am excited for what the future has in store for me. We moved around often growing up. In fact, I lived in nine or more different places in Perry County. I was a very active child. For example, I loved the outdoors and playing sports. I was like a tiger with lots of energy. Now, I am more like a cat. I prefer to stay home and lay in the sun all day. I attended three different schools. I hated being the new kid and I hated school for the first few years. I was put on the school bus crying each morning. There was a graduation ceremony after kindergarten. So after a few weeks of first grade, I came home and told my dad that I had already graduated and did not need to go back. In his words, I was a hand full. He let me stay home until the next year...
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...Good Life There are many opinions as to what the “good life” is. Some people believe that the good life is attainable through education, while others believe that following a rule of conduct would leave you leading the “good life.” Still others say that being truly happy will allow you to live a good life. There are many questions that arise when trying to answer the question of “What is the good life and how can it be attained.” The peoples of India and China would each have their own view of what the good life means and they have the same view of what the good life means to them. I think the good life for both India and China is the desire of having a son. Both Chinese and Indian parents mostly desire a son more than a daughter. Family life has always been extremely important to Chinese culture as Chinese lived in large family units. As many as 100 or more relatives lived together under the rule of the oldest male. The ideal was "five generations under one roof." However, those who lived this way were mainly families of rich rural landowners, wealthy merchants, and government officials. Among the common people, most households consisted of only parents and children, but some also included grandparents and uncles. Chinese’s families traditionally valued sons far more than daughters. A husband could divorce his wife if she failed to give birth to sons. In some cases, daughters were killed at birth because they were considered useless, for females could not continue the family...
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...Tina Bai Knowledge, Reality, Self Professor Georg Theiner 10/1/12 The Implication of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” In The Republic, Plato reveals the overwhelming ignorance of humanity through the allegory of the cave. Plato summarizes his viewpoint of society as a whole through this allegory, portraying the human race as imprisoned in the chains of oblivion, unaware of its own inhibited perspective. A more contemporary philosopher, Umberto Eco, also criticized the state of society in a similar fashion in Travels in Hyperrreality; describing the overwhelming trend of “horror vacui.” The allegory of the cave reveals the importance of education in the journey towards enlightenment-only through instruction can individuals recall the inherent knowledge of the Forms. The significance of the allegory is rooted in Plato’s belief that there exist inherent truths hidden under the superficial surface of society that only enlightened individuals can uncover through education. Plato’s allegory of the cave follows as thus: A cluster of prisoners, having been enclosed in a cave since birth, has never laid eyes on any kind of daylight. Furthermore, these individuals are prevented from turning their heads to look to either side by their bonds, and can consequently only envision what lies straight ahead. Lying posterior to the shackled prisoners is a fire which is subsequently anterior to a wall. A collection of statues sojourn on the top of the wall and are manipulated by a separate...
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