Values and the Good Life

• With 7.3 billion people, the definition of "the good life" varies greatly.
• Positive psychology seeks to understand why some people flourish, while others do not.
• The definition of "good" is based on where we live, how we live, our childhood experiences, and the character strengths we value.
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs models human needs as a pyramid, with physiological needs at the base and self-actualization at the top.
• As one moves up Maslow's pyramid, the idea of the "good life" evolves.
• People lacking security may see a secure environment with social bonds as "the good life".

Values and the Good Life

• Values like power, security, tradition, or benevolence guide the selection and evaluation of actions and events.
• A secure job may be someone's idea of "the good life" if security is a core value.
• If achievement is a core value, "the good life" may be someone finding meaning in their work .
• A study across different countries found values are unrelated to happiness, but value difference is reflected in what they say is important to happiness.
• Values help determine what people consider the good life.
• Social comparison has a role; people rate what they have relative to others.
• "What is better" can be the enemy of "what is good," and people are often ambling for meaning

Choice and Happiness

• Consumers with a limited choice of 6 chocolates were happier than those with 30 choices.
• Opportunity costs means making a choice involves deciding against alternatives.
• The more choices and the more attractive they are, the more alternatives people have to deselect and potentially regret.
• More choices can lead to dissatisfaction and a feeling of poverty.
• Life becomes more complicated with wealth and abundance.
• Possessions are losing their attraction and there is a trend toward experiences rather than possessions.
• True happiness means being grateful for being able to choose

Schools of Thought

• There are various schools of thought related to the good life.
• These can be summarized as materialism, hedonism, stoicism, theism, and humanism

Materialism

• Philosophical monism believes matter is the fundamental substance in nature.
• Materialism states that mental states and consciousness are results of material interactions.
• Mind and consciousness are by-products of material processes, like brain biochemistry.
• Materialism contrasts with idealism, where mind and consciousness are first-order realities.
• Materialism relates to physicalism—all that exists is ultimately physical.
• Physicalism uses concepts like spacetime, physical energies, forces, and dark matter.

Hedonism

• Hedonism argues that seeking pleasure and avoiding suffering are the only components of well-being.
• Ethical hedonism combines hedonism with welfarist ethics, where what one should do relies only on what affects people's well-being.
• Ethical hedonists advocate increasing pleasure and reducing suffering.
• Negative consequentialism dictates only the minimization of suffering matters.
• Negative utilitarianism only the minimization of suffering would matter
• Ethical hedonism was started by Aristippus of Cyrene, held pleasure as the highest good.

Stoicism

• Stoicism is an ancient philosophy of life founded around 300BC by Zeno of Citium.
• Zeno was a merchant who had lost everything in a shipwreck before becoming a student of the Cynic school.
• The concept of control sees areas of life that people can influence vs those outside of control.
• This understanding helps people from wasting time and energy on what they can't control and accepting it.

Theism

• Theism is belief in the existence of a Supreme Being or deities.
• Theism describes the classical conception of God in monotheism or gods in polytheistic religions without rejection of revelation.
• Atheism is rejection of theism and belief in God or gods.
• Agnosticism is the claim that the existence of any deity is unknown or unknowable.

Humanism

• Humanism emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively.
• Humanism refers to a perspective that affirms human freedom and progress.
• Humanism views humans as responsible for the promotion and development of individuals.

Technology and the Good Life

• Technology allows individuals to get medical operation for sexual reassignment, breast implants, hormones.
• These technological advancements are undertaken to attain the good life.
• The balance between the good life, ethics, and technology has to be attained.
• Each person has their own viewpoint of the good life
• In the seventeenth century happiness became a showpiece in the lives of people.
• Science and technology has been at the forefront of man's attempts at finding happiness.
• The questions remains if man is on the right path in attaining what it really means to live the good life.