Defining the Good Life:
Philosophical Perspectives
Good Life
Defining Good Life in Different Perspectives
The meaning of good life may differ from person to person. Your friend may
see good life as being wealthy. Your cousin may comprehend it as having a
complete and happy family. The smartest classmate of yours may understand
it as getting recognition and reaching dreams. The old man in your neighbor
may thought it as fulfilled life. To them, this good life is perhaps one of the
fantasies of humans. Though the works of philosophers for the past hundred
years may seem separated from earthly desires, this is not always true.
Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Nietzsche once made the
understanding of good life as the center of their philosophy.
Plato
Plato once said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." In typical ancient
Greek fashion, Plato and his mentor Socrates define the good life in terms of
reasonable restraint and civic duty. They believed that an individual become
a master of himself using his reason to reign in his passions, as well as doing
what he can to help promote the stability of his community. Plato also claims
that despite the reality of change, things remain, and they restrain their
ultimate "whatness" – these concepts were explained by Plato through the
two aspects of reality which are world of matter (changing and
impermanent) and world of forms (real entities).
Aristotle
Aristotle disagreed with his teacher, Plato, for he believed that there is no
reality over and above what the senses can perceive. As such, it 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. We, along with all
other entities in the world, start entails change. Every human person aspires
for an end. This end, as what we have learned from the previous module, is
happiness or human flourishing. No one – male or female, young or old,
curly or straight, poor or wealthy – resists happiness. We all want to be
happy. Aristotle claim that happiness is the end of everything that we do.
Immanuel Kant
Kant describes happiness as "continuous well-being, enjoyment of life,
complete satisfaction with one's condition." He refers to man's preservation
and welfare as synonymous with his happiness. In the Critique of Practical
Reason, Kant defines happiness as "the state of a rational being in the world
