Life Essay: What Makes A Good Life

Everyone in life has their own journey. Life is not based upon one ultimate goal. A good life overall depends on how you live it and what perspective it is in. For a man that does not have a home, his good life could be living in a shelter and being surrounded with people just like him. The woman who just got a promotion and is now celebrating with her fiance. From the little things in life to the “never would have thought this would be happening,” the good life all depends on the person.

And this begs the question: What is the good life? Humanity is not boundless. Humanity is bounded by the forces of the natural world: things like food and water, shelter, or sickness. Humans must remain in homeostasis in order to thrive. Humanity is bounded by society: the ideas, words, and actions of the members of a society all effect the direction in which humanity, as a whole, will move.

Everyone desires to live a good life and people are always searching for ways to do so. In my case, by moving to the United States, I now have the opportunity to live a good life, but my definition differs from everyone else’s. I believe that living a good life means getting a good education, working hard, family support, willing to adapt new environment, having a leader, and becoming a self-made individual.

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.

Many philosophers have spent countless hours contemplating human existence and human purpose, but overall they are all analyzing one question- what is the best way to live? In almost every culture around the world, life is cherished and people have come up with religions and philosophies that suggest answers to the question concerning the best way to live. Some philosophies, such as Ayn Rand’s objectivism and Aristotle’s views on happiness, are centered around pursuing one’s own happiness and leading a fulfilling life. However, actually successfully living in the best way by pursuing one’s own happiness is quite challenging due to the complex restraints of human nature and human flaws. In order

“A positive sense of wellbeing which enables an individual to be able to function in society and meet the

So overall, to me the good life encompasses all of these previously mentioned things as well as spending countless hours surrounded by family and friends talking and laughing. I think the good life means working hard for what you’re passionate about and not just trying to please others. I think it also includes learning to be independent and finding the comfort in loneliness, unknown, and unrest and truly learning how to find peace in Christ during those times. As I continue through life, I hope to seek hard after Christ and be confident that he will never fail to lead me to what is best for me and what will bring the most glory to His

The term “the good life” can be viewed in different ways. Although, the more powerful meaning regarding the sources would be when others are jealous of your own success. In other words, they can be considered haters. Once you reach this point, you sense accomplishments because it shows you did something with your life. More importantly, “the good life” can be lived well if you’re able to help others while you’re stable and able to treat yourself.

The concept that is being presented for the good life is loosely based on the principles of the libertarian party. Which are for the most part socially liberal and fiscally conservative. The 5 characteristics that will be outlined throughout this research is liberty, laws/ limited government, toleration, free market capitalism, and peace. When you hear the word Liberty, what do you think of? Do you think about the Merriam-Webster definition of “the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges.”1 Or do you think of liberty as freedom of choice and expression? Either way that you think about liberty, almost everyone can agree that it is an absolute necessity for a free society. Liberty is vital for the success

In part one of our book, “The Good Life,” we studied five different philosopher’s viewpoints on what is needed in order for a person to have a good, fulfilling life. They all included the concepts of pleasure and happiness to some extent in their theories, but they all approached the ideas in different ways. The two hedonists we studied, Epicurus and John Stuart Mill, place heavy emphasis on the importance of pleasure. They both believe that pleasure is a necessity in the ideal life. Jean Kazez agreed with their viewpoints in her theory and said that happiness was a necessity for a good life. Epicurus and Mill also argue that there is nothing else that we ultimately desire beyond pleasure and that it is an intrinsic good.

But not all people lucky to have a house to be their shelter. If you have beautiful house but you are the one that leave in the house is not called a happy life. In this quote family builds home, although your house is not beautiful as long as you are together with your whole family. A happy life is not measured by money or valuables things, happy life is when your family is complete and celebrating with them with your achievements in life. Family is the one that complete the life of every person.

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.

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.