THE GOOD LIFE

ABSTRACTION
“The truth is the aim of the theoretical sciences, the good is the end goal of the practical ones. Every attempt is
connected in some way in an attempt to find the goo” - Aristotle

Materialism Leucippus and Democritus (460-370 BC)

The first materialism were the atomists in Ancient Greece. The atomist philosophers thought that universe
and matter are only made up of atoms “atomos” or seeds. These are indivisible particles, assembled by chance and
in a purely mechanical way. The founders of this theory was the Greek philosopher Leucippus and his disciple
Democritus (around) 460-370 B.C.). This belief aims that comfort, pleasure and wealth are the only highest goals.

Hedonism
Epicurus continued the theory of materialism, which does not buy any notion of afterlife. The hedonists see
the end goal of life in attaining pleasure. For hedonists, since life is limited, one must indulge itself with pleasures
“Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die”. They strive to maximize their total pleasure, the difference of
pleasure and pain, and if the pleasure was finally gained, happiness remains fixed.

Stoicism
Stoicism is one of the schools of thought in philosophy created for those who live their lives in the real
world. It was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium (early 3rd century BC). Stoicism asserts that virtue (e.g. wisdom)
is happiness and judgement should be based acts on behaviour rather than words.
People do not have any control and must not rely on external events, only for themselves and their responses. This
philosophy, helps a person to overcome destructive emotions and acts on what can be acted upon, Stoicism also
differs from other schools of thought with its purpose as a practical application rather than intellectual enterprise.

Theism
The ultimate basis of happiness for theists is the communion with God. They believe that they can find the
meaning of their lives by using God as the creator of their existence. Theism is a belief that one or more gods exist
within the universe, and that gods are often omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent
(all-pervasive). This belief incorporates Monotheism (belief in one god) and Polytheism (belief in one god) and
Polytheism (belief in many gods). The Abrahamic faiths such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as Hinduism are
all theistic religions.

Humanism
Humanism is another school of thought that affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to
give meaning and shape their own lives. “It is not theistic and does not accept supernatural views of reality” – IHEU;
international humanist and ethical union.

Further, humanists see themselves not only as the stewards of creation but as individuals who have control
for themselves as well as the world outside them. Most scientists dwell on this thoughts that the world is a place for
discovery in seeking ways on how to improve the lives of its inhabitants. As a result, scientists eventually turn to
technology to ease the difficulty of life, that is, to live comfortably.

The ultimate goal of a good life

Aristotle was the originator of the concept of eudaimonia (from daimon – true nature). He deemed
happiness to be a vulgar idea, stressing that not all desires are worth pursuing as, even though some of them may
yield pleasure, they would not produce wellness. Aristotle thought that true happiness is found by leading a
virtuous life and doing what is worth doing. He argued that realizing human potential is the ultimate human goal”
(Boniwell 2008).
 Boniwell (2008) emphasized that feeling good is not enough for a good life. Each person must realize his/her
potentialities which would lead him/her to the greatest fulfilment – Daimon.

The role of technology in achieving good life.

According to Vergragt (2006), in his essay about how technology could contribute to a sustainable world,
technology will support and enhance a “good life” for all citizens without compromising the earth’s ecosystem or
the prospects of later generations. As Stutz (2006) stated, a good life requires essential basic human needs are met
and aspirations for freedom, belonging and self-realization are fulfilled as much as possible. Vergragt also noted that
technological innovation in the context of the good life and how it can be supported or threatened, depending on
the way technological innovations are influenced and steered by human decisions and institutions.

Technology, however, allowed us to tamper time and space. Social media as an example has been very
effective in doing this. Communication has been a lot easier for people from different parts of the world. They can
talk and see each other in real time and send messages instantly without waiting for a letter mail to arrive.
Technology also allowed us to fiddle with our sexuality by injecting hormones in order to alter the biochemical in
our body. Whether, we use such technological advancements or not, these are all in the pursuit of attaining a good
life. It is the question of how we decide on what kinds of technology to use or not to use as well as the balance
between the good life, ethics, and technology has to be achieved.

According to Westacott(2018), there are three ways by which we can understand what is meant by "a good
life" or "living well." These are the Moral Life, Life of Pleasure, and Fulfilled Life. Read the full article below.

What is the Good Life? The various meanings of "living well" By Emrys Westacott
What is "the good life?" This is one of the oldest philosophical questions. It has been posed in different ways-
How should one live? What does it mean to "live we//?"- But these are really just the same question. After all,
everyone wants to live well, and no-one wants "the bad life."

But the question isn't as simple as it sounds. Philosophers specialize in unpacking hidden complexities, and
the concept of the good life is one of those that needs quite a bit of unpacking. For what do phrases like 'the good
life," or "living well," mean? They can be understood in at least three ways.

The Moral Life

One basic way in which we use the word "good" is to express moral approval. So when we say that someone
is living well or that they have lived a good life, we may simply mean that they are a good person, someone who is
courageous, honest, trustworthy, kind, selfless, generous, helpful, loyal, principled, and so on. They possess and
practice many of the most important virtues. And they don't spend all their time merely pursuing their own
pleasure; they devote a certain amount of time to activities that benefit others, perhaps through their engagement
with family and friends, or through their work, or through various voluntary activities.

This moral conception of the good life has had plenty of champions. Socrates and Plato both gave absolute
priority to being a virtuous person over all other supposedly good things such as pleasure, wealth, or power. In
Plato's dialogue, Gorgias, Socrates takes this position to an extreme. He argues that it is much better to suffer wrong
than to do it; that a good man who has his eyes gouged out and is tortured to death is more fortunate than a
corrupt person who has uses wealth and power

In his masterpiece, the Republic, Plato develops this argument in greater detail'
The morally good person, he claims enjoys a sort of inner harmony, whereas the wicked person, no matter how rich
and powerful he may be or how many pleasure he enjoys, is disharmonious, fundamentally at odds with himself and
the world. It is worth nothing, though, that in both the Gorgias and the Republic. Plato bolsters his argument with a
speculative account of an afterlife in which virtuous people are rewarded and wicked people are punished.

Many religions also conceive of the good life in terms as a life lived according to God’s laws. A person who
lives this way, obeying the commandments and performing the proper rituals, is pious. And in most religions such
piety will be rewarded. Obviously, many do not receive their reward in this life. But devout Believers are confident
that their piety will not be in vain. Christian martyrs went singing to their deaths confident that they would soon be
in heaven. Hindus that the law of karma will ensure that their good deeds and intentions will be rewarded, while
evil actions and desires will be punished, either in this life or in future lives.

The Life of Pleasure

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus was one of the first to declare. bluntly, that what makes life worth
living is that we can experience pleasure, Pleasure is enjoyable, it's fun, it's... ...well.....pleasant! The view that
pleasure is the good or to put it another way, that pleasure is what makes life worth living, is known as hedonism.
Now, the word "hedonist," when applied to a person, has slightly negative connotations. It suggests that they are
devoted to what some have called the lower' pleasures such as sex, food, drink, and sensual indulgence in general.
Epicurus was thought by some of his contemporaries to be advocating and practicing this sort of lifestyle, and even
today an “epicure" is someone who is especially appreciative of food and drink. In fact, though, this is a
misrepresentation of Epicureanism. Epicurus certainly praised all kinds of pleasures. But he didn't advocate that we
lose ourselves in sensual debauchery for various reasons:

• Doing so will probably reduce our pleasures in the long run since over- indulgence tends to cause health problems
and limit the range of pleasure we enjoy.
• The so-called -higher- pleasures such as friendship and study are at least as important as of the flesh."
• The life has to be virtuous. Although Epicurus disagreed with Plato about the value of pleasure, he fully agreed
with him on this point.
• Today, this hedonistic concept of the life is arguably dominant in Western culture. Even in everyday if we say
someone is "living the good life." we probably mean that they enjoying lots of recreational pleasures: good food,
wine, skiing, scuba diving, lounging by the pool in the sun with a cocktail and a beautiful partner.
• What is key to this hedonistic conception of the good life is that it emphasizes subjective experiences. On this
view, to describe a person as “happy" means that they “feel good” and a happy life is one that contains many "feel
good” experience.

The Fulfilled Life

If Socrates emphasizes virtue and Epicurus emphasizes pleasure, another great Greek thinker, Aristotle,
views the good life in a more comprehensive way. According to Aristotle, we all want to be happy. We value many
things because they are a means to other things: for instance, we value money because it enables us to buy things
we want; we value leisure because it gives us time to pursue our interests. But happiness is something we value not
as a means to some other end but for its own sake. It has intrinsic value rather than an instrumental value.

So for Aristotle, the life is the happy life. But what does that mean? Today, many people automatically think
of happiness in subjectivist terms: to them, a person is happy if they are enjoying a positive state of mind, and their
life is happy if this is true for them most of the time. There is a problem with this way of thinking about happiness in
this way, though. Imagine a powerful sadist who spends much of his time gratifying cruel desires.

Or imagine a smoking, beer guzzling couch potato who does nothing but sit around all day watching old TV
shows and playing video games. These people may have plenty of pleasurable subjective experiences. But should
we really describe them as “living well?” Aristotle would certainly say no. He agrees with Socrates that to live the
good life one must be a morally good person. And he agrees with Epicurus that a happy life will involve many and
varied pleasurable experiences. We can’t really Say someone living the good life if they are often miserable or
constantly suffering.

But Aristotle idea of what it means to live well is objectivist rather than subjectivist. It isn’t just a matter of
how a person feels inside, although that does matter it’s also important that certain objective conditions be
satisfied. For instance:

Virtue: They must be morally virtuous.

Health: They should enjoy good health and a reasonably long life.
• Prosperity: They should be comfortably off (for Aristotle this meant affluent enough so that they don't need to
work for a living doing something that they would not freely choose to do).
• Friendship: They must have good friends. According to Aristotle human beings are innately social; so the good life
can’t be that of a hermit, a recluse, or a misanthrope.
• They should enjoy the respect of others. Aristotle doesn't think that fame or glory is necessary: in fact, a craving
for fame can lead people astray, just as the desire for excessive wealth can. But ideally, a person's qualities and
achievements will be recognized by others.
• They need good luck. This is an example of Aristotle's common sense. Any life can be rendered unhappy by tragic
loss or misfortune.
• They must exercise their unique human abilities and capacities. This is why the couch potato is not living well,
even if they report that they are content. Aristotle argues that what separates human beings from the other animals
is reason. So the good life is one in which a person cultivates and exercises his rational faculties by, for instance,
engaging in scientific enquiry. Philosophical discussion, artistic creation, or legislation. Were he alive today he might
we'/ include some forms of technological innovation.
If, at the end of your life, you can check all these, then you could reasonable claim to have lived well, to have
achieved the good life. Of course, the great majority of people today do not belong to the leisured class as Aristotle
did. They have to work for a living. But it's still true that we think the ideal circumstance is to be doing for a living
what you would choose to do anyway So people who are awe to pursue their calling are generally regarded as
extremely fortunate.

The meaningful life

A lot of recent research shows that people who have children are not necessarily happier than people who
don’t have children. Indeed, during the child raising years, and especially when the children have turned into
teenagers patents typically have lower levels of happiness and higher levels of stress. But even though having
children may not make people happier, it does seem to give them the sense that their lives are more meaningful.

For many people, the well-being of their family, especially their children and grandchildren, is the main
source of meaning in life, This outlook goes back a very long way In ancient times, the definition Of good fortune
was to have lots o/ children who do we" for themselves. But obviously, there can be other sources of meaning in a
person’s life,

They may, for instance, pursue a particular kind o/ work with great dedication: e.g scientific research, artistic
creation, or scholarship. They may devote themselves to a cause: e.g. fighting against racism; protecting the
environment. Or they may be thoroughly immersed in and engaged with some particular community: e.g. a church;
a soccer team; a school

The Finished Life

The Greeks had a saying: Call no man happy until he's dead There is wisdom in this. In fact, one might want
to amend it to: Call no man happy until he's long dead. For sometimes a person can appear to live a fine life, and be
able to check all the boxes-virtues, prosperity, friendship, respect meaning. etc.—yet eventually be revealed as
something other than what we thought they were. A good example of this is Jimmy Saville, the British TV
personality who was much admired in his lifetime but who, after he died, was exposed as a serial sexual predator.

Cases like this bring out the great advantage of an objectivist rather than subjectivist notion of what it means
to live well. Jimmy Saville may have enjoyed his life. But surely, we would not want to say that he lived the good life.
A truly good life is one that both enviable and admirable in all or most of the ways outlined above.

Key Points
Aim – a purpose or intention; a desired outcome.
Good – denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is
generally considered to be the opposite of evil, and is of interest in the study of morality, ethics, religion and
philosophy.
Happiness is used in the context of mental or emotional states, including positive or pleasant emotions ranging
from contentment to intense joy. It is also used in the context of life satisfaction, subjective well-being, eudaimonia,
flourishing and well-being.
Life is used in the context of mental or emotional states, including positive or pleasant emotions ranging from
contentment to intense joy. It is also used in the context of life satisfaction, subjective well-being, eudemonia,
flourishing and well-being.
Perceive become aware or conscious of (something); come to realize or understand.
Philosopher is someone who practices philosophy. The term philosopher comes from the Ancient Greek:
Romanised philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek
thinker Pythagoras.
School – any institution at which instruction is given in a particular discipline.
Scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of interest.
Thought encompasses an "aim-oriented flow of ideas and associations that can lead to a reality-oriented
conclusion". Although thinking is an activity of an existential value for humans, there is still no consensus as to how
it is adequately defined or understood.
Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality. In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things
that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs, propositions, and declarative sentences.
Truth is usually held to be the opposite of falsehood.
Ultimate a final or fundamental fact or principle.
Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common
sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-
knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.