Eudaimonia: The Good Life and Philosophers

Eudaimonia: The Good Life

• Eudaimonia is synonymous with happiness, welfare, human flourishing, and prosperity
• It's a condition of well-being, regardless of emotional state
• The good life focuses on personal happiness and inner peace
• Socrates believed eudaimonia is the ultimate goal, achievable through virtues like justice, courage, self-control, and wisdom
• Plato, Socrates' student, believed inner peace and harmony with the world are crucial for a good life
• Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, argued that the highest good for humans is happiness, achieved through intellectual and moral virtues
• Intellectual virtues (e.g., prudence) help know what is just and admirable; moral virtues (e.g., compassion) help act virtuously
• Aristotle saw the soul divided into rational and irrational parts, further divided into contemplative (reasoning about universal truths) and calculative (practical reasoning) parts
• Intellectual virtues help determine appropriate means to moral virtues' ends
• Intuition and wisdom (combining scientific knowledge and intuition) are the highest intellectual virtues. Understanding eternal truths is key to wisdom

Other Philosophies on the Good Life

• Hedonism: The good life is the pleasurable life

• Pleasure and pain are intrinsically valuable/not valuable, respectively

• Epicurus, a hedonist, saw happiness as the greatest good, found in simple, sustainable pleasures

• Stoicism: Emphasizes virtues, right actions and "well-being", flourishing, and happiness

Hinduism

• Life is a cycle of rebirth (samsara) governed by karma
• Good deeds lead to better rebirths
• Confucianism: Filial piety, harmony in family, respectful governance, and a righteous life are crucial
• The Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you") is paramount
• Confucius emphasized jen (human-heartedness), li (propriety), and yi (righteousness)

Buddhism

• The ultimate goal is Nirvana (perfect happiness, wisdom, and peace)
• It's achieved through following Buddha's teachings

Christianity

• The good life comes from following Christ, God's teachings, healthy relationships, and God's principles

Objectivism

• Happiness is the moral purpose of life, achieved through personal sacrifices and achievements

The Public Good

• The public good is what benefits most or all of a society, and what the local and national goverments also supply as necessities

Technology and Humanity

• Megashifts: Exponential shifts in human experience (digitization, mobilization, screenification, disintermediation)
• Technology facilitates interaction, communication, and work, but can disrupt social, cultural norms and patterns

Biodiversity and the Healthy Society

• Biodiversity is the variety of life (species, ecosystems, and genes)
• Biodiversity is essential for ecological balance and well-being
• It has both consumptive and non-consumptive values
• The biodiversity is essential of the ecosystems and also vital life support for human sustenance

Climate Change

• Climate change is a change in global temperature, possibly caused by human activities
• Greenhouse gasses (mainly CO2) are a significant cause
• Burning fossil fuels is a major source of greenhouse gases
• Climate change has wide-ranging impacts, including weather patterns, rising sea levels, and biodiversity losses

Alternative Energy Resources

• Energy is essential for all living things
• Renewable vs. Non-renewable energy resources
• Renewable resources include solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass-based energy
• Non-renewable resources include fossil fuels and nuclear energy
• Renewable energy is gaining importance to battle climate change and sustainability