Some people consider freedom the meaning of the good life. Thoreau teaches that the good life is “freedom from desire.” To have a good life people must be free to make their own choices and mistakes. However, other people have a different opinion about the good life—Andrew Carnegie believes people can find the good life through success and wealth. Yet still, others want neither of these, choosing instead to stay innocent with no responsibilities like Adam and Eve, free from decisions and the stresses of everyday life. Another view is Freud’s Pleasure Principle that suggests people are interested only in fun and doing whatever they want all the time. Moreover, these people don’t want to worry about anything else.
The concept of living “the good life” means something different for everyone. There is a general understanding that living “the good life” is associated with unyielding happiness and lasting satisfaction. The exact meaning of this desired life was pondered by thinkers and philosophers for hundreds of years. They constructed principals of behavior, thought, and obligation that would categorize a person as “good”. Although some of these ancient philosophies about “the good life” had overlapping ideas, their concepts varied widely. This contrast of ideas can be examined through two major characters in two famous works: Aeneas in “The Aeneid” and Socrates in “The Apology”. Aeneas exemplifies the philosophy that the direct route to “the good life" is through faith, trust in the Gods, and family, while Socrates in “The Apology” emphasizes free will, and vast knowledge of life.
The first major component in life is to know that there is no such thing as being completely free. In the world, to be free means, one must have money and to be able to make sacrifices. Additionally, in order for one to earn the freedom they shall defend countries that already spoken as free, to stay free. A great President, Harry Truman, once said, “we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way (Doc 1 A).” This President spoke of freedom, and the problems of the government. President Truman also said, “ the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon freedom of
“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” exist as things citizens should believe in. Life is something that should be cherished as a secret and never be destroyed. Every soul has the ability to grasp its own good fortune and strive for the best it can be. A government system that places liberty at the center of its concerns is the aim for the future generation governments. Maintaining and owning property is a right everyone is given at birth that cannot be taken away. Consequently, in the pursuit of happiness, it’s not the fulfillment, or its final meaning, nonetheless it’s the search for it. Citizens have the chance to make their own life story and it’s that chance they get to make their life how they want it. Not to live it how someone says to. Moreover, it’s about the journey in finding happiness, not the arrival. No one deserves to be living a life where you can’t make your own
There are many different forms of governments throughout the world. Some are socialist, some democratic, and some of a different denomination. Some have rights and freedoms, and others do not. All of these governments, however, still have the same purpose of protecting their people. This causes many to think similarly to the statement made by H. L. Mencken, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.” This statement can be applied not only to Mencken’s own time, but modern day contemporary society as well.
If you asked a random person on the street “what is a good person?” or “what is the good life?” you would likely receive a different answer from everyone. These answers would be different because everyone has their own ideas and opinions of what the answers should be. For many, a good person is someone who lives a good life, is a Christian, or someone who helps other individuals. For some, a good person might be someone who puts others first and someone who is reliable. The same applies to the answers you would receive from “what is the good life?” Just like everyone had different opinions on what a good person is, they will also have different opinions on what the good life is. You might get answers ranging from spending time with one’s family to having a lot of money. These answers vary depending on the individuals values and world view. For some individuals this desire for money can cause them to act on it, driving them to steal in order to gain happiness. Bronk supports this idea by stating, “Our answers guide our actions, influence our decisions, and inspire our dreams” (2008, p.713). This paper will discuss how philosophers believe everyone should live and what kind of people we should be, what a good person is, what the good life is, and what the relationship between goodness and human reality is.
Has life been good to me? That’s a good question, Life has not been that good to me. I had my ups and downs. More downs than ups but I made it through them. Some downs we’re harder to get through than others. My life has not been good to me but I have my friends and family that help me through it. The past few years haven’t been the best between almost losing my mom to depression, not being able to see my Dad from him abusing me to doing drugs. I remember one time he came home from work and was acting strangely. He went upstairs to talk to my stepmom. My stepsisters and I were sitting on the couch watching TV. All of a sudden we heard screaming so we ran upstairs. I saw my Dad on top of my Stepmom choking her. We all ran over to them and tried
There is really no definite explanation for what a happy and healthy life consists of. People may create a list of qualities that one desires for a “good” life, though many may come from a bad source. Profound philosophers Jean Kazez and Chris Heathwood developed both subjective and objective theories to help define the true meaning of a substantial life. Jean Kazez was responsible for the objective view of well being, where life requires fundamental goods or necessities for a good life. On the other hand, Chris Heathwood explained in a subjective view that satisfying your desires will promote well being. In the movie, D’Jango Unchained, two black men, Stephen and D’Jango, experienced contrasting lives and confronted each other at the end of the movie. During the time period the movie transpires in, it was extremely rare for a black man to have a “good” life. Most black people were made into slaves, but both Stephen and D’Jango had better lives. Stephen had a bad quality of life, and D’Jango aspired to live a “good” life based on the objective and subjective views of well being.
The concept of the good life is one that comes up frequently in the PULSE program because it centers on the core beliefs of the program itself; personal and social responsibility. To me, the nature of the good life entails of knowledge, happiness, justice, and introspection. Through my exploration of the good life, I hope to clarify how I view the good life in accordance to Aristotle and Plato, but also, how I perceive the good life in general. Service is an important portion of the PULSE program, which is why the good life has to be related to it. The belief that service can lead to the good life will allow me to explore the importance of service for the good life, thus, I will be able to explore how PULSE will affect my version of the good life. By connecting the good life to my own personal life, I can clarify how it differs and how it is similar to how Aristotle and Plato defined the good life. Through this, I will be able to connect the good life to my experiences and can investigate how my experiences have influenced my version of the good life. Through my examination of Plato’s and Aristotle’s work, I hope to explain what the good life means to me, and how I hope to achieve it, in and outside of my service placement.
In an ideal world, democracy would stand as the preferable choice for the welfare of all. However, in the real world, this is not always the case. Today, the term dictatorship typically yields a negative connotation. Many associate this term with a ruler acting in force and in self-interest, with the governed body suffering as a result. On the contrary, the term democracy typically yields a positive connotation and evokes positive emotion. When evaluating these terms with respect to the philosophical concepts of consequentialism, utility and Immanuel Kant’s motto, Sapere aude (Dare to Know), a new light is shed on the true significance of these terms. Utilitarianism is defined as the doctrine that an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct ("Utilitarianism, Act And Rule | Internet Encyclopedia Of Philosophy"). Although democracies have typically been viewed as the more civilized approach to government, consequentialism proves that dictatorships can in fact provide a governed body with a higher degree of welfare, as long as the doctrine of utility is exercised for all.
In this paper, a person will read about how most people believe that the best things in life are free, when in fact they are not. Instead, the best things in life require people work hard in order to be rewarding, and because of that are definitely not free.
Just a couple week or before, I was hovering around the streets of Kathmandu and was gyrating around a top of my house with a heavy brain box. Every of those 24 hours of my days used to be spent on finding the meaning of life, death and the reason I am here on this planet. After those rigorous searches inside the book ‘Nirwad, ‘The Alchemist’, and inside my own heart, I finally got the answer.
Question: What is Aristotle’s idea of a good life and why does he view a good life in this way? Is Aristotle’s understanding of a good life accurate? Why or why not? (Make sure to talk about the concept of the mean).
In today’s world, humans are often misled on what really is a good life. We are constantly shown through the television and magazines that being rich and famous is the way to go when it comes to a good life, when in truth many of them are miserable by problems that usually wouldn’t affect the common person. In truth there are only a few that are rich and famous and do achieve what can probably considered one of the greatest achievement’s by a man which is having a good life. In my opinion, the decision if someone has a good life or not is up to them and their will to strive for something better than average during the high school years of their life. The reason I feel like it begins at that age in their life is
It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.