The Importance Of Good Life

Since ancient times, many have sought to the answer the philosophical question, “What is the ‘good life’?” This is a question with no simple answer! For some individuals, “the good life” could mean living a life based on justice and rationality, or on faith and trust in the divine, or on the attainment of power, military, glory, and reputation. Their perspectives varied greatly depending upon their cultural values and contexts.

Have you ever truly sat and considered what makes you truly happy? Often times, people answer directly with the response of money. We say this without deeply considering all that we have to be grateful for. Happiness is not achieved through wealth instead through experiences, the family we love, and the nature that surrounds us, literature has created a great impact upon the ideals we consider to create our happiness.

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.

Competition for worldly success still centered the lifestyles of this current generation as it always had in the past. In addition to striving for survival, workers search and long for achievements to gain extra luxury and wealth. Greed replace the innocent hearts of most people, for they can never be satisfied with what they have. It could even become an obsession and supplants a new goal and purpose in their life. As a result of this, they are surrounded and blinded by a wall of selfishness to care nothing about transforming the wretched conditions and sufferings that exist in their society.

A goal tempted to be achieved by people all over the world is the good life. The idea of endless happiness is pleasing to everyone. Three components found in achieving the good life is an intensive feeling of affection a person feels, when their heart starts racing when they see something they love. Feeling belonged in a society helps a person feel connected and less lonely, and significance to the world and to the people, feeling that one was put on this earth to make a change. In an individual’s life love, status and significance to the world and one another, are the basic components in making the good life achievable.

Humans strive every day, through hard work and dedication, to live life to the fullest. Different people though, have different views on what a “good life” exactly is. For some, the idea of their “good life” may be bathing in wine, along with endless amounts of luxurious goods, with no concern about money, while others might use their life to inspire, and make this world a better place for as long as they can. Whatever the case may be, everyone strives to live a “good life,” because at some point that life comes to an end. According to Wikipedia:

Most of the late-modern philosophers took a completely different view of ethics and a moral society as their predecessors. Aside from Kierkegaard’s deeply religious views, their ideas were to get away from religion being necessary to achieve a good life. The emphasis was one in which people should not think in order to be ethical one must be religious. This seemed as if they were all of a sudden coming out and saying the earlier philosophers were wrong in tying ethics and religion. The post-modern philosophers pursued this line of thinking further, going back to the basics from the beginning of recorded

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.

Wealth has always been seen as one of the primary ways to attain satisfaction and contentment with life, but never as much as in modern times. Much of the way today’s society is structured from the economy to higher education has become incredibly competitive. This competitive nature has grown as human’s desire the attainment of affluence in the hopes it somehow makes a person happier. This constant drive for more is called the hedonic treadmill. People consistently work the hardest they can in order to have the latest and greatest thing. This newly obtained item may result in a quick and temporary high, but soon individuals will return to their original level of satisfaction. This leads to a constant and endless wheel of consumption, all to experience the temporary euphoria that results from greater wealth. However, much wealth is hoarded and consumed as studies have shown “that people are destined to hedonic neutrality in the long run” (Diener 36). Once a human’s basic needs are consistently fulfilled, the amount of wealth a person has does not seem to have a massive impact on how they measure their own happiness. Over time this competition of consumption between humanity has been successful, and has resulted in incredible and unprecedented economic growth over the past one hundred and fifty years, yet “...all the evidence shows that on average people are no happier today

“How, then should I live my life”? What constitutes a well-lived life in today’s society? Everyone has a different perspective about how an individual must live a well-lived life. Every individual has a unique life purpose. What might be considered important to one, might not be important to the other individual. For instance, acquiring a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree or even a doctorate degree might be valuable in certain families while in others acquiring a high school diploma is sufficient. Even though, life is full of choices, individuals have different priorities in life. An individual must decide what matters the most, one cannot ignore certain issues if an individual wants a peaceful life. Living a well-lived life is characterized by focusing on one’s personality, live the present, creating

What does happiness even mean? Does everything think the same when they hear happiness. I do not believe that happiness means the same thing to

In this paper, I will argue that we can live a more meaningful life by developing a sense of purpose. I will support my thesis by presenting an argument from Christine Vitrano's essay Meaningful Lives. Next, I will present an alternative view to my thesis with an argument from Leo Tolstoy’s essay My Confession. Finally, I will discuss a potential objection to my view, showing how it can be met.

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.

Money, clothes, cars, houses, and even marriage – these are all things that some may consider to determine whether or not they are living the “good life.” Others may view the good life as being able to enjoy nature every day, being able to run and jump, or even being able to read as many books as they please. Whatever one’s view of having or living the good life may be, there are certain assets or factors in their lives that makes them believe that their lives are good. There are also certain things they did, qualities they possess or steps they took to get to their good-life status. Different people

We as humans find ourselves in a constant pursuit of a life stable enough to provide a certain degree of control and self-sufficiency while also remaining open to the possibility of circumstances which are not entirely under our control, such as love. To recognize the beauty of the mysteriousness and uniqueness associated with love, a force we cannot control, while also maintaining a certain degree of self-sufficiency may possibly allow us to live a good life with a love immune to tragedy. The idea of what constitutes the “good life” can be categorized in two contrasting perspectives: a life of goods or a life of self-sufficiency. A life of goods including wealth, reputation, and honor proves itself to be seriously vulnerable to circumstances beyond the control of the agent. For example, the agent cannot control the social or economic class they are born into. Similarly, they cannot control the way others view them. Although one may seek the approval of others, they have no control over whether or not they actually receive it. On the other hand, a self-sufficient life revolves around wisdom, truth, and the best possible state of one’s soul. The self-sufficient “concern [themselves] with the pleasures of learning, and adorn [their] soul(s)… with its own ornaments, namely, moderation, righteousness, courage, freedom, and trust” (Phaedo, 114e-155a). Whichever version of a good life one chooses to live by, love undoubtedly serves as a component of the flourishing life. The