Lesson 3:
Lesson Objectives:
❖ Examine what is meant by a Good Life;
❖ Identity how humans attempt to attain what is deemed to be a
Good Life;
❖ Recognize possibilities available to human being attain the Good
Life
Introduction:
❑ In an attempt to understand reality and the external world, man must
seek to understand himself too.
❑ It was Aristotle who gave a definitive distinction between the
theoretical and practical sciences.
❑ “truth” is the aim of theoretical sciences
❑ “good” is the end goal of practical ones
Aristotle and How
We All Aspire for a
Good Life
Different approach in
figuring out reality
Plato
▪ Things in this world are not
real and are only copies of
the real in the world forms
▪ Change is so perplexing that
it can only make sense if
there are two realities: the
world forms and the world
of matter
▪ Recognized change as a
process and as a phenomenon that happens
in the world, that is in fact, it is constant.
▪ Claims that despite the reality of change,
things remain and they retain their ultimate
“whatness”
Plato
▪ Convinced that reality is full
of these seemingly
contrasting manifestation of
change and permanence.
▪ “world of matter” things are
changing and impermanent
▪ “world of forms” the entities
are only copies of the ideal
and the models, and the
forms are the only real entities
Aristotle
▪ This world is all there is to it
and that is the world is
the only reality we can all
access.
▪ There is no reality over and
above what the senses
can perceive.
▪ It can only by observation of
the external world that
one can truly understand
what reality is all about
▪ Change is a process that is inherent in
things
Aristotle
▪ Every human being moves according
to some end.
▪ Every action that emanates from a
human person is a function of the
purpose (telos) that the person has.
▪ HUMAN FLOURISHING- a kind of
contentment in knowing that one is
getting the best out of life
- a kind of feeling that one has
maxed
out his potentials in the world, that
has attained the crux of his humanity.
Happiness as the Goal
of a Good Life
John Stuart Mill
▪ Declared the Greatest Happiness
Principles
▪ An action is right as far as it
maximizes the attainment of
happiness for the greatest number of
people.
▪ Individual happiness of each individual
should be prioritized and collectively
dictates the kind of action that
should be endorse.
Democritus and Leucippus
▪ Led a school
whose
primarily
belief is that
the
world is made
up of and is
controlled by
the tiny
indivisible units in the world
called anomos or seed.
Materialism
Democritus
▪ The world, including
human beings, is
made up of matter.
▪ There is no need to
posit immaterial
entities as a sources of
purpose.
▪ Atomos –simply
comes together
randomly to form
the things in the world. As such, only
material entities matter.
▪ In terms of human flourishing, matter is
what makes us attain happiness.
Materialism
Hedonists
▪ See the
end
goal of
life is
acquiring pleasure.
▪ Pleasure has always been their
priority
▪ Life is about obtaining and indulging
in pleasure because life is limited.
▪ “Eat, drink and be merry for
tomorrow we die.” Led by
Epicurus
Hedonism
Stoics
▪ Espoused the
idea that to
generate
happiness, one
must learn to
distance oneself
and be apathetic.
▪ Apatheia,
precisely
means to be
indifferent.
▪ Happiness can only be attained by
a careful practice of apathy.
Stoicism
Theists
▪ The
ultimate basis of
their happiness is the
communication with
God.
Theism
Humanism
▪ Humanism as another school of thought espouses the freedom of man to carve
is own destiny and to legislate his own laws, free from the shackles of God that
monitors and controls.
Humanists
▪ Man
is
literally the captain of his own
ship.
▪ See themselves not merely as
stewards of the creation but as
individuals who are in control of
themselves and the world outside
them.
Humanism
Lesson REVIEW!!!
