SCITECH TOPIC 6

THE GOOD LIFE

LESSON OBJECTIVES

• AT THE END OF THIS LESSON, THE STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

• Examine what is meant by a good life;

• Identify how humans attempt to attain what is deemed to be a good life;

and

• Recognize possibilities available to human being to attain the good life.

INTRODUCTION

• In ancient Greece, long before the word “science” has been coined, the need to
understand the world and reality was bound with the need to understand the self
and the good life.

• For Plato the task of understanding the things in the world runs parallel with the
job of truly getting into what will make the soul flourish.

• Aristotle- theoretical and practical sciences

• Theoretical disciplines includes logic, biology, physics and metaphysics

• Practical disciplines includes ethics and politics

• “Truth” is the aim of the theoretical sciences, the “good” is the end goal of the
practical ones.

• One must find the truth about what the good is before one can even try to locate
that which is good.

• What does it really mean to live a good life?

• What qualifies as a good existence?

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ARISTOTLE AND HOW WE ALL ASPIRE FOR A GOOD LIFE

• Aristotle- the first philosopher who approached the problem of reality from a
“scientific” lens as we know now, is also the first thinker who dabbled into the
complex problematization of the end goal of life: happiness.

• Plato thought that things in this world are not real and are only copies of the real
in the world of forms but Aristotle puts everything back to the ground in claiming
that this world is all there is to it and that this world is the only reality we can access.

• For Plato, change is so perplexing that it can only make sense if there are two
realities: the world of forms and the world of matter.

• Plato recognized change as a process and as a phenomenon that happens in the

world, that in fact, it is constant.

• He also claims that despite the reality of change, things remain and they retain
their ultimate “whatness”;

• Plato was convinced that reality is full of these seemingly contrasting

manifestations of change and permanence.

• For Plato, this can only be explained by postulating two aspects of reality, two
worlds if you wish: the world of forms and the world of matter.

• In the world of matter, things are changing and impermanent.

• In the world of forms, the entities are only copies of the ideal and the models, and
the forms are the only real entities.

• Aristotle disagreed with his teacher’s position and forwarded the idea that there is
no reality over and above what the senses can perceive.

• It is only by observation of the external world that one can truly understand what
reality is all about.

• Change is a process that is inherent in things.

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• We, along with all other entities in the world, start as potentialities and move
toward actualities.

• The movement entails change.

• Every human being moves according to some end.

• Every action that emanates from a human person is a function of the purpose
(telos) that the person has.

• Every human person, according to Aristotle, aspires for an end.

• This end is happiness or human flourishing.

• We all want to be happy.

• We may not realize it but the end goal of everything that we do is happiness.

• What Aristotle actually means is human flourishing, a kind of contentment in

knowing that one is getting the best out of life.

• A kind of feeling that one has maxed out his potentials in the world, that he has
attained the crux of his humanity.

HAPPINESS AS THE GOAL OF A GOOD LIFE

• In the eighteen century, John Stuart Mill declared the greatest happiness principle
by saying that an action is right as far as it maximizes the attainment of happiness
for the greatest number of people.

• Mill said that individual happiness of each individual should be prioritized and
collectively dictates the kind of action that should be endorsed.

• The ethical is, of course, meant to lead us to the good and happy life.

• History has given birth to different schools of thought, all of which aim for the good
and happy life.
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MATERIALISM

• The first materialists were the atomists in ancient Greece.

• Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primarily belief that is that is the
world is made up of and is controlled by the tiny indivisible units in the world called
atomos or seeds.

• For Democritus and his disciples, the world, including human beings, is made up
of matter.

• There is no need to posit immaterial entities as sources of purpose.

• Atomos simply comes together randomly to form the things in the world.

• As such, only material entities matter.

• In terms of human flourishing, matter is what makes us attain happiness.

• We see this at work with most people who are clinging on to material wealth as
the primary source of the meaning of their existence.

HEDONISM

• The hedonists, for their part, see the goal of life in acquiring pleasure.

• Pleasure has always been the priority of hedonists.

• For them, life is about obtaining and indulging in pleasure because life is limited.

• The mantra of this school of thought is the famous, “eat, drink, and be merry for
tomorrow we die”.

• Led by Epicurus, this school of thought also does not buy any notion of afterlife
just like the materialists.

STOICISM

• Another school of thought led by Epicurus, the stoics espoused the idea that to
generate happiness, one must learn to distance oneself and the apathetic (not
having or showing much emotion or interest).
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• The original term, Apatheia, precisely means to be different.

• For stoics, happiness can only be attained by a careful practice of apathy.

• We should, in this worldview, adopt the fact that some things are not within our
control.

• The sooner we realize this, the happier we can become.

THEISM

• Most people find the meaning of their lives using God as a fulcrum of their
existence.

• The Philippines, as a predominantly catholic country, is witness to how people

base their life goals on beliefs that hinged on some form of supernatural reality
called heaven.

• The ultimate basis of happiness for theists is the communion with god.

• The world where we are in is only just a temporary reality where we have to
maneuver around while waiting for the ultimate return to the hands of god.

HUMANISM

• Humanism as another school of thought espouses the freedom of man to carve

his own destiny and to legislate his own laws, free from the shackles of a god that
monitors and controls.

• For humanists, man is literally the captain of his own ship.

• Inspired by the enlightenment in seventeenth century, humanists see themselves

not merely a stewards of the creation but as individuals who are in control of
themselves and the world outside them.

• This is the spirit of most scientists who thought that the world is a place and space
for freely unearthing the world in seeking for ways on how to improve the lives of
its inhabitants.
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• As a result of the motivation of the humanist, current scientists eventually turned

to technology in order to ease the difficulty of life.

• Scientists of today meanwhile are ready to confront more sophisticated attempts

at altering the world for the benefit of humanity.

• Some people now are willing to tamper with time and space in the name of
technology.

• Whether or not we agree with these technological advancements, these are all
undertaken in the hopes of attaining the good life.

• The balance, however, between the good life, ethics, and technology has to be
attained.