The Virtuous Life as the "Good Life"
1. Aristotle (Eudaemonia)
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argued that the route to happiness and the good life is in fulfilling your purpose as a human being. Since humans are rational creatures, this means using your power of reasoning to make the best of what you are given in life. You must figure out your purpose and your abilities, and work to perfect yourself. By being the best you can be, you will be living well and will gain eudaemonia. This word is often translated as happiness, but it also carries the notion of satisfaction or contentment. For example, if your purpose is to be an artist, you will reach eudaemonia by working to perfect your artistic ability. If it is to be a plumber, you will achieve it by perfecting your plumbing. Eudaemonia is achieving your destiny, what you are supposed to be.
However, you don't set out to achieve eudaemonia, it happens as a by-product, or result, of living well. It is also not a temporary condition, but a permanent state of being. As well, it is not something you can just do in your spare time-it requires a lifetime of virtuous living in accordance with the golden mean and you may not achieve eudaemonia until after you are dead.
Happiness also involves those around you, and the happiness of your friends and family plays a part in your well being. The pursuit (or not) of pleasure may be part of your path to eudaemonia; so might the pursuit of wealth, fame, artistic excellence, athletic prowess, or political power. It all depends on what your reason reveals is your individual purpose and particular excellence and your efforts to be all you can. Eudaemonia holds together all these things and gives them meaning. It is different for each person, as each person is different from every other. Thus, there is no single set of criteria for what is a good life, no single pathway to happiness. Eudaemonianism sets out a process for finding the path that will lead to your happiness, by living the virtuous, rational life.
2. Thomism
St. Thomas Aquinas based his virtue theory on Aristotle. He agreed that one should try to be virtuous and that happiness would result from striving for human perfection, as Aristotle claimed. However, Aquinas argued that this would be only incomplete happiness. True, complete happiness, which he called beatitude, could only come from a supernatural union with God. This complete happiness would result from your virtuous life leading you towards God. Only in finding God could you be truly happy.
3. Buddhism
Buddhism rejects the idea that enjoying pleasures, either intellectual or sensual, makes for the good life. The basis of the the Four Noble Truths is that life is suffering (dukkha), and that suffering arises from desire: when you want something, you will be unhappy until you have it. However, once you have it, you will want more of it. This is true of material things, love, or even life itself. Satisfaction of desire is only temporary, and that when that satisfaction passes, the unhappiness and desire will return. To eliminate suffering, you must strive to eliminate desire, and to do this, you must follow the Noble Eightfold Path. This teaching stresses moral actions (particularly not harming others), acquiring mastery over desire, and spiritual insight. This would include having few possessions and avoiding overly strong emotional ties. If a person followed this path and acted virtuously, they would be living a good life.
Central to Buddhist doctrine is belief in re-incarnation, necessary for a soul to become educated on the Eight fold Path. When someone dies, if they are not yet cleansed of the craving for more life, they will be re-born. But it is not always the case that a human would be re-incarnated as a human; they might very well come back as a dog, a monkey, or a bug, if that is the stage of their soul's education. Thus, a devout Buddhist tries to avoid harming others-including bugs-in accordance with the Eight fold Path so they could progress on the Path towards enlightenment. The goal of the Path is nirvana-a state of nothingness, or 'no-self', a release from all desires. When you reach nirvana, your candle is forever extinguished and you are freed from the cycle of suffering.
Buddhism is not "bling"-oriented. Happiness in this life is not the focus of the religion. In fact, happiness will only lead to unhappiness, according to Buddhism.
4. Stoicism
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher, 1st century CE. Provided by Quote World.
Stoicism originated in Greece in the 4th century BCE. It became very popular in the Hellenistic Era and the early Roman Empire (1st-2nd century CE). Some famous Roman followers included the writer Cicero, philosopher Seneca, and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism has many similarities to Buddhism, in that it sees suffering as a central problem in human life. To overcome suffering, one must use reason to rise above your passions:
Get rid of the judgement, get rid of the 'I am hurt,' you are rid of the hurt itself.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV
Marcus Aurelius and his horse,accepting their places
in the great scheme of things.
(Capitoline Museums, Rome.)
Stoics strive to transcend the here and now and to understand the fundamental, natural order of the universe: things are as they are and you have a place in the great scheme of things. You should live wisely and justly, treating all people fairly and well, and live a well-ordered, rational life. How you live is more important than what you do when alive. A virtuous life was based on duty and reason, in accepting the world as it is, rather than how you want it to be. If you can overcome yourself, and see and accept your place in the world, you will be happy.
Later philosophies, such as existentialism, carry on many Stoic themes. Existentialists emphasize freedom, taking personal responsibility for one's actions, and making decisions based on what you want to do, not what you believe others would want you to do. This is the principle known as 'authenticity', being true to you. If you are true to yourself, you are living well.
The modern "Serenity Prayer" of Reinhold Niebuhr expresses a Stoic sentiment:
Give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
The courage to change the things that should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Exceprt from, "Serenity Prayer", Reinhold Niebuhr (although some argue that it was written in 500 CE)
5. Confucianism
Kongfuzi, a Chinese philosopher of the 6th century BCE, based his notion of ethical behaviour on relationships between individuals: parent to child, ruler to subject, husband to wife. Each of these individuals has a role, with obligations towards the others. If everyone performs their role properly, then social harmony will result and all will be happy. If, on the other hand, individuals decide to act outside their proper role and chase after what they believe will make them happy, social chaos will result and all will be unhappy. For you to be happy, all must work together, including you. The individual is less important than the community and acting selfishly-acting to increase your own happiness, perhaps at the expense of others-will led to bad results for the community. What will lead to the greatest happiness for the individual is knowing your place in society and carrying out your proper role. If everyone does this, everyone will enjoy the benefits of living in a well-ordered, happy society.
A good life is doing what you are supposed to do within the community. Plato agreed, living a good life was living a life of service and involvement in your community. Happiness would result for all if society were well-ordered and if people fulfilled their proper roles.
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