What is "the good life?"

[Roxanne Appleby]

'Can the average person experience a life of "transcendental meaning," or is the only "purpose" to "while away the time as pleasantly as possible?" '

I'm going to go out on a limb.

No.

Trascened to means to go beyond to exceed. How can a life have meaning MORE THAN LIFE, if it's only composed of the 'stuff of life'?

The people that I think trascended life... Milton, Edison, Shakespeare, Einstein, Hemingway, Dylan Thomas... They mark the lifes of others long in a positive fashion long after their own deaths; they teach, their work and life live long past the natural end of it.

Maybe for someone who is not objectively self-aware, the 'stuff of life' can provide transcendendtal meaning... but they won't know it because they're only subjectively aware of themselves.

The only thing I can accept that MIGHT give someone that 'meaning' is their children; yeah, you raised good children who can make more of life than the 'stuff of life'... great, you life will transcend through them, unless a bus kills them all on the way to school.

The part that annoys me is that while billions of people around the world are never given the opportunity to 'transcend' even the lot in life they were born into... while some people who are given every opportunity seemed determined to shit on it.

So there... average people are just that average and they don't even know they're average.

Oh, this is an interesting discussion.

I'm going to go out even further on a limb: I don't know.

I tend to look at this though the lens of "end of life reflections" - or regrets. When I'm laying there in the hospice, will I look back and think, "Wow, that was really important and worthwhile. I contributed so much to the lives of people I loved and cared for, and that makes me feel very satisfied and content."

Or, "Wow, my career really made a difference to the lives of many people I'll never know, that was really important, that makes me feel satisfied and content."

Or (as someone told me Marlo Brando said in an interview before he died, adding to my opinion that he was jerk), "What was that all about?"

Is the first of these "transcendent?" I don't know. If that's the way I feel then, I don't think I'll really care.

I don't know how valid this "deathbed regret" perspective is. Or, I think it's valid, but it may not be complete, and may leave important things out.



(PS. - Pay no mind to Pure's gratuituous introduction of "reason" to this discussion. He's just trying to take shots at me for being friendly to Objectivism.)

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

. . . While many have offered specific and personal opinions as to what the 'good life' is composed of, in typical subjective humanist terms, all have refrained from an 'universal' or axiomatic response, which, forgive me, is what I think Roxanne is seeking...

The 'mind' is not only the sexiest organ a human possesses; it is also the source of the greatest joy a human can experience and thus, the definition of the, 'good life', must be founded on that axiom.

"To learn, is the greatest joy a human can experience..." a paraphrase, from one of the Philosophers I referenced earlier.

It is not the Hedonistic pursuit of fleshly pleasures, nor the sometimes vain search for happiness or perfection that rules the roost of the 'good life', rather the joy of seeking answers and finding them.

No, I'm not looking for a "universal" or "axiomatic" response, and I doubt there is one (you may begin the expulsion proceedings at your convenience. ) I'm delighted to read subjective humanist interpretations of the good life - I think they can be entirely valid. I love what Chantilly said, for example (though I'm a bit concerned about the "hot sex in the rain," because it excluded desert dwellers. )

That said, I like your formulation also, and think it's valid and useful.

 

[cloudy]

If I ever have "the good life," I'll let you know.

In the meantime, I get great satisfaction from helping those less fortunate than I am. I don't have much - very little, to be honest - but there are many who have less, and many of those are right here in our own country.

When all is said and done, I want to have made a difference to just one person.

 

[elsol]

Oh, this is an interesting discussion.

I'm going to go out even further on a limb: I don't know.

I tend to look at this though the lens of "end of life reflections" - or regrets. When I'm laying there in the hospice, will I look back and think, "Wow, that was really important and worthwhile. I contributed so much to the lives of people I loved and cared for, and that makes me feel very satisfied and content."

Or, "Wow, my career really made a difference to the lives of many people I'll never know, that was really important, that makes me feel satisfied and content."

Or (as someone told me Marlo Brando said in an interview before he died, adding to my opinion that he was jerk), "What was that all about?"

Is the first of these "transcendent?" I don't know. If that's the way I feel then, I don't think I'll really care.

I don't know how valid this "deathbed regret" perspective is. Or, I think it's valid, but it may not be complete, and may leave important things out.


(PS. - Pay no mind to Pure's gratuituous introduction of "reason" to this discussion. He's just trying to take shots at me for being friendly to Objectivism.)

At the end, let me look around and think to myself "Okay... someone stop this planet, I'm ready to step off into the abyss."

That's a good death... when you're ready.

 

[shereads]

I used to be ambitious, competitive, obsessed with success, terrified of failure and deeply miserable.

I spent most of my adult life trying to be someone I'm not, following some inner edict that told me a successful person welcomes challenges and overcomes her fears. I was shy, so I chose a field that forced me to speak in front of groups. I loved to write, but was never comfortable sharing my work. So I built a career in a profession that submits writers to a daily barage of revisions, rejections and - worst of all - enthusiastic praise followed by "minor improvements" that make our best work mediocre. I don't like critiquing other people's work, but I accepted promotions that required it - at the cost of some friendships. I cherish solitude, disdain corporate politics and have a social conscience. But I remained in the corporate world, hating the person I became to survive - and dreading the day I'd accept an assignment that felt unethical. I even chose hobbies I feared, like flying.

I grew up absorbing a Puritan work ethic. Work isn't meant to be enjoyed. People of character set difficult goals and don't quit until we've achieved them. Failing to achieve one's goals = a failed life.

A few years ago, the exhaustion and futility nearly killed me. With no desire to keep living, I finally had nothing to lose - and the freedom to pursue a fresh perspective. Now all I want is peace of mind. I got half-way there when I stopped defining success as an increasingly higher place on the corporate ladder, with a house and car commensurate with the job title.

A good life is feeling comfortable inside your own skin.

A worthwhile goal is to leave the world a little better, or at least no worse, for my having lived in it. It's a tough one.

 

[Pure]

Brian Register quoted by Roxanne Flourishing, however, means something like the successful pursuit of a vast array of physical, mental, and spiritual goods in the context of a life-long plan of values.

notable failures in achieving this version of 'the good life'

socrates,
jesus
buddha
st. francis
spinoza
nietzche
kierkegaard
wittgenstein
gauguin
van gogh
dylan thomas
kerouac
poe
baudelaire
rimbaud
mozart

---
PS. Behind Mr. Register's proposal is rationality. the person chooses goals A, B, C. Then prioritizes. Next figures the appropriate means and takes them and on to the next goal. First you buy a car, then a while later a house. First you take "pre med" course, then you do "med" school, then internship. Then you practice your chosen profession.

Planning is key.

It can be seen that many of the above figures had large elements of the UNplanned, in their lives.