THE GOOD LIFE
• Aristotle and How we all aspire for a
Good Life.
• Happiness as the Goal of a Good Life.
What is the Good Life?
INTRODUCTION
• In Ancient Greece before the word “science”, the
need t understand the world and reality was bound
with the need to understand the self and the good
life.
• For plato, the task of understanding the things in the
world runs parallel with the job of truly getting into
what will make the soul flourish. (Man must seek to
understand him self too.)
• According to Aristotle. “Truth” is the aim of
the theoretical sciences, the “good” is the
end goal of the practical ones.( One must
find the truth about what the good is before
one can even try to locate that which is
good.)
ARISTOTLE
• He puts everything back to the ground in claiming
that this world is all there is to it and that this
world is the only reality we can all access.
• There is no reality over and above what the senses
can perceive. Its is 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. It
starts as potentialities and move toward
actualities. The movement also entails change.
• He extends the external world into the province
of an human persons and declares that even
human beings are potentialities who aspires for
their actuality. Every action that emanates from
a human person is a function of the purpose
(telos) that the person has.
• Every human persons for an end which we have
learned. Happiness or Human flourishing.
PLATO
• He though that things in the world are not real and not
only copies of the real in the world of forms.
• Change is so perplexing that it can only make sense if
there are two realities: the world of forms and the
world of matter.
• He recognized change as aa process and a phenomenon
that happens in the world, that is constant.
• He also claims that despite the reality of
change, things remain to be you despite all
the changes happened .
• He was convinced that reality is full of
these seemingly contrasting manifestation
of change and permanence.
2 ASPECT OF
REALITY
WORLD WORLD
OF OF
FORMS MATTER
• The entities are only
• Things are
copies of the ideal
and forms are the changing
only real entities. and
• Things are red in impermanen
this world because t.
they participate in
what it means to be
HAPPINESS AS THE GOAL OF A
GOOD LIFE
• In 18th century,, john Stuart Mill declared the Greatest
Happiness principle by saying that an action is right as far
as it maximizes the attainments of happiness for the
greatest number of people.
• Mill said that individuals happiness of each individual
should be prioritized and collectively dictates the kind of
action that should be endorsed. When an action benefits
the greatest number of people, said action is deemed
ethical.
• Ethical meant to lead us to the good and
happy life.
• Throughout the years, man has constantly
struggled with the external world in order to
reach human flourishing.
• History has given birth to different schools of
thought, all of which aim for the good and
happy life.
MATERIALISM
Atomist:
Democritus and
Leucippus
• The world is made up of and is
controlled by the tiny indivisible units in
the world called atomos or seeds.
• The world and also human beings is
made up of matter.
• Atomos comes together randomly
to form the things in the world.
• Matters is what makes us attain
happiness.
HEDONISM
Hedonists: acquiring
pleasure
• Life is about obtaining and indulging in pleasure because
life is limited.
• The mantra of this school of thought is the famous, "Eat,
drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." led by Epicurus.
• They do not buy any notion of afterlife just like the
materialists.
STOICIMS
Stoics: Epicurus
• They espoused the idea that to generate happiness, one
must learn to distance oneself and be apathetic. (Apatheia
means to be indifferent).
• Happiness can only be attained by a careful practice of
apathy.
• We should adopt the fact that some things are not within
our control. The sooner we realize this, the happier we can
become.
THEISM
Theists: The communion
with god
• Most people find meaning of their lives using God as a fulcrum
of their existence.
• To witness how people base their life goals on beliefs that hinged
on some form of supernatural reality called Heaven.
• The world where we are in is only just a temporary reality where
we have to maneuver around while waiting for the ultimate
return to the hands of God.
HUMANISM
Humanists: The captain on his own ship
• The freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to
legislate his own laws, free from shackles of a God that
monitors and controls.
• Scientists turned to technology in order to ease the
difficulty of life. They are ready to confront more
sophisticated attempts at altering the world for the
benefit of humanity and willing to tamper with time and
space in the name of technology.
• Technology allowed us to tinker with our sexuality. (Medical
Operations, hormones)
• Whether or not we agree with these technological
advancements, there are all undertaken in the hopes of a
good life. The balance, however, between good life, ethics
and technology has to be attained.
THANK YOU!
Mr. Robel Banda Mica Roaring
Jiady Riparip
Instructor STUDENT
