Nina

The Good Life

Personal Growth / 12 Apr, 2020 26 May, 2020 / Leave a Comment

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
– Aristotle

Aristotle makes two central claims about the content of eudaimonia or “happiness”:

happiness is the activity of the soul in alignment with virtue (high moral standards)
happiness needs external goods

According to Aristotle the meaning of human life is to live well by satisfying our natural needs and cultivating good habits based on things that are good for us. These include:

Goods of the body: Health, physical strength, looks, vitality, athletic ability etc.
External goods: Wealth, food, drink, shelter, clothing, fame, honor, power etc.
Internal goods/goods of the soul: Knowledge, skill, love, friendship, aesthetic appreciation, self-esteem, honor, projects, education, artistic creativity, friendship etc.

Guilt & Leading An Ethical Life

Psychology / 12 Apr, 2020 26 May, 2020 / Leave a Comment

Don’t feel bad about not living a perfectly ethical, “good” life. That would be counterproductive: Feeling guilty about wrong actions doesn’t make us more moral or act better in the future.

Not only that, feeling guilty is selfish: Guilt is based on self-involvement, which only makes our egos feel better – and therefore more likely to look away from injustice; the opposite of being ethical. An ethical response to bad acts should not involve thinking about your personal feelings, but to be pragmatic & practical and consider how to right them.

Figuring out how to live this “good” life should be fun: The more you enjoy morality (more specifically, acting virtuously), the more likely it is that you’ll live ethically. Learning to feel pleasure about morality may be necessary for moral excellence. Guilt is the opposite of pleasure and therefore the opposite of ethical living.

Source: It’s impossible to lead a totally ethical life—but it’s fun to try & 7 reasons not to feel bad about yourself when you have acted immorally