LESSON 3

THE GOOD LIFE

“TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE, MAKE IT
IDEAL.”
 Aristotle and The good life

• Aristotle’s aim was for everyone to lead what he

called the “good life” and achieve happiness.
• People are not just naturally “happy” you must
work for it.
• This good life could only be achieved by following
the virtues.
• If you follow the virtues then you are living to the
golden mean (a balance between extremes of
behavior)
• Today, different societies might have different
virtues that would lead to happiness (or more
modern ways of expressing the same things Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)  did!)
 Aristotle argued that as we mature, we act less aimlessly and more purposefully. We
try to develop a plan for living that unites all our various purposes. Without a plan for
living, we don’t know what we are trying to do or why we’re trying to do it. Moreover,
not just any plan will do—we need the right plan.
The final end of human life is to flourish, to live well, to have a good life

Why people differ about what constitutes a good life and for you what is the basis that
you have attain a good life?
 Happiness to Aristotle

 “Happiness defends on our selves”

 Central purpose of human life and a goal in itself
 Defends on cultivation of virtue.
 A genuinely happy life required the fulfillment of a broad range of
conditions including physical as well as mental well-being.
MATERIALISM
- Also called physicalism, in philosophy, the view material interaction with no
accounting of spirit and consciousness.
HEDONISM
- The doctrine that pleasure and happiness is the highest good.
The word ‘hedonism’ comes from the ancient Greek for ‘pleasure’. Psychological or
motivational hedonism claims that only pleasure or pain motivates us. Ethical or
evaluative hedonism claims that only pleasure has worth or value and only pain or
displeasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth. Jeremy Bentham asserted both
psychological and ethical hedonism with the first two sentences of his book An
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation: “Nature has placed mankind
under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain, and pleasure. It is for them
alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do”.
STOICISM
- A philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtues, more wise
and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals.
In defining happiness, we need to reflect on what is unique or distinctive about
human beings, considered in comparison to all other creatures. This line of thought
leads to the conclusion that happiness consist mainly in the possession and exercise of
the virtues.

THEISM
- Belief in the existence of a gods, especially belief in one god as creator of the
universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures.
 Theism is the belief that the Supreme Being exists (or must exist) independent of the
teaching or revelation of any particular religion.[1] It represents belief in God entirely 
without doctrine, except for that which can be discerned by reason and the
contemplation of natural laws. Some philosophical theists are persuaded of God's
existence by philosophical arguments, while others consider themselves to have a
religious faith that need not be, or could not be, supported by rational argument.

HUMANISM
- An outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than
divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness
of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of
solving human problems.
Thank you!!!