First: What is the good life
“I’m glad Betty didn’t give us enough information to stifle my creativity.
Betty’s Chart says the good life might be
1. For the Buddhist, Freedom from suffering.
a. I think it may be that, for one who has suffered, freedom from suffering is more of a relief or a good rather than the good. That is, Freedom from Suffering is an element of the good life but not the good life itself. Being dead would seem to be the better life if this philosophy is true.
However
Ever since the nerve died in my tooth while hiking in the mountains I have held the conviction that pleasure was the absence of pain.
Philosophy, enlightenment, comes to us in strange ways. It isnt often that one can contemplate beating oneself in the mouth with a rock in order to lessen the pain. When the dentist f i n a l l y drilled a hole in that tooth and the gas hissed out and the pain ceased I seriously entered and have never left the good life. So the man may be right after all. I'd forgotten that.
2. For the Confucionist, A life of Virtue.
a. this begs the question of what virtue is but nevertheless virtue is seen as leading to a life of balance and social harmony.
b. The life of balance and harmony thus seems to be the goal, and virtue rather than being the good life is rather a, or in this philosophy the, thing which leads to the good life.
c. So virtue may simply be seen as another element of the good life rather than the good life itself.
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3. For Socrates the examined life is the good life.
a. But what if one examines his life and is dissatisfied with it but sees no logical way to enhance it. Is this still a good life or is it just an examined one which has been found wanting but which for lack of alternatives seems to be the one with which which you are stuck ?
b. And how does one enhance a life to make it good? What should one strive for and how should one strive. Or is striving bad? One may seemingly examine the hell out of ones life and still be in misery from want of human needs such as adequate food, clothing, warmth or human companionship. And what of human wants? Thinking may not make it so.
4. For Aristotle the good life is happiness or flourishing.
a. And one achieves happiness and the state of flourishing by practicing virtue. And virtue is morality. But what is morality? Is the rational the moral and is anything that is moral also rational. If your grandfather is annoying the rational thing would be to get rid of him but is this moral?
b. If one is seen to be flourishing may one assume that one has become so by morality? Is this The Gospel of Wealth? “Put ten thousand immoral men in one valley and ten thousand moral men in another valley and one will soon see that “godliness is in league with riches”. While the immoral man lolls at his ease and goes to get a drink at the well, the moral man will throw off his coat, grasp the plow handle, and go to work.”
c. Or is it possible that the immoral, lying, cheating, tax evading man may occasionally flourish?
d. Is it possible for the moral individual to flourish in a corporate climate?
e. So who will be happy, the immoral multi millionaire or the cheated, impoverished moral man. Someone should perhaps examine this life.
5. Gita believes that the good life is release or liberation from craving, fear, selfishness, and ignorance.
a.Well, I guess if one didn’t want anything it would take some of the sting out of not having it. But if the it is food and shelter and human companionship it only takes a little of the sting out while one starves or freezes plumb to death. And I guess death is the ultimate release so perhaps for Gita the sooner the better. And why live at all? Life as we would know it inthis philosophy is not life. What we are looking for here is a good cessation of life.
b. But, at best, this seems to be a rather passive response. One could just sit with half-closed eyes and look at the tip of ones nose and achieve much of this. {this is a quote from the Gita on how to achieve nirvana. No one recognized it.} This life would seem to be mostly in the mind. Though how one passively overcomes ignorance is a bit of a poser. One might conceivably think ones way to truths, but maybe not to the information upon which the truths are founded. Other than that, Drugs would seem the quickest way to this good life of always being in trance. What after all is the difference, other than a set of philosophic or religious criteria that are incapable of rational resolution or proof? And when one frees oneself from all material desires is one dependent on someone bringing one the food one needs but no longer desires. So the path to liberation is dependent on not everyone achieving it.
c. Note to self: don’t practice this in a really cold country (you could easily freeze to the sidewalk) and make sure you have a few people unenlightened enough to bring you food.
d. Question to self. Do the unenlightened have to bring you the food or do you have to pay for it and for having it delivered. And if you have to pay for all this do you have to inherit the money or actually hold a job. Bummer. Dont try contemplating the end of your nose while deep frying potatos
6. Native Americans are said to believe that the Good Life is one of respect for earth, god, others and freedom. a.
One achieves this good life by developing virtues of truthfulness, honesty, strength, endurance, and courage.
If one remembers correctly, the virtues of courage and strength and endurance are developed and showcased by killing ones enemies and taking their horses. That would seem to work against the development of some other virtues
. Are these the same Native Americans that enslaved members of other tribes and among whom one found the Aztecs who killed their neighbors and offered their hearts to the gods? Well, fifty percent isn’t bad.
. I’m guessing that the good life to the Native American is one of respect for ones own piece of earth, ones own god and ones own tribal group; And that the development of that respect comes by being honest and truthful with ones own tribal affiliates while displaying strength, endurance and courage while in conflict with outsiders. I knew a Navajo girl who thought that the solution to “the Hopi problem”, which I hadn’t know existed, was/is to kill all the Hopi’s.
So, if we are all related, we are really all related to our own concept of “the real people.”
I think we may have to go off the charts or at least adapt and carefully adopt selected element of these charts to lay out the good life for us and its method of achievement.
It seems clear to me that the good life as generally perceived is a cultural thing. It is probable that it is even more limited than that of a particular culture. I suspect that even within our own culture we will not really agree on what the good life is. I doubt that what is the good life to you is totally the good life to me. We may be lucky if we touch at the terminuses. That is not to say there is no such thing as the good life, but that for many people it turns out to only be a not the good life.
So let me now go to one of those terminuses.]
Well, Betty is right. One cannot begin to do anything to achieve the good life until one determines just what it is. It is to me, in part, association; association and conversation, with friends, with acquaintances who may become friends and with family who may become the same and with students who become a sort of surrogate family who are amazingly willing to sit and listen and to converse.
Part and parcel of that association is the feeling that those associates respect you and that they are worthy of respect also.
And good conversation fills another need. The word feels healing and enlarging and pure enjoyment.
And somewhere in this, there must be some sort of useful service, given and taken.
And for me, there must be time, alone and sufficient to allow contemplation and study.
The enjoyment of all this requires, or is at least furthered, and expanded by health and freedom from pain. But when pain does come, as it will, whether from illness, accident, age or design I wish to bear it, confront it, with some dignity and a lot of Tylenol. Under girding all this, for me is a conviction that makes sense of life and makes me feel grounded.
I need to live up to those concepts, which I have internalized. That is,
a. I need to respect the earth, god, others, and their and my freedom.
b. I need to be honest and truthful, and to have strength, endurance and courage.
c. It is necessary to learn as much as I can, to live rationally and logically, and as much as is possible, healthily, free from self induced pain. I also need to avoid as much as is possible the pain caused by others, while causing them no pain.
d. Simple things like eating well but not too well, of regularly exercising, alone, while thinking are particularly satisfying to me and add to a sense of well-being while actually promoting that state.
And the good life I live can either be pleasant for me and good for others, or pleasant to me and not so good for others. And living a life that is good for others may not contribute the ultimate in physical pleasure to me and yet be the best life. So the good may not always feel good at least in its best phase. The true good life may be so only in retrospect, and be a delayed gratification which at times while it is being lived may have little to do with sensory pleasure. Yet there must be that sensory gratification for life does not seem life with out it.
