The Good Life: Do Great Minds Think Alike?

What does it mean to live a good life? How does one go about it? What manner of persons should we be? Many philosophers, theologians, and laymen have ruminated on the subject and drawn their own conclusions. Is there only one right answer? Is there a right answer at all? Perhaps there is a fitting solution for all of us, or perhaps we must each devise our own path to the good life. Of the many individuals who have written on this subject, let us delve into the philosophies of three individuals: Aristotle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Bertrand Russell. Perchance, within the theories of these three philosophers, a common ground may be discovered.

More than twenty-three hundred years ago lived a man named Aristotle (384-322B.C.E.). He lived in a largely polytheistic Greece as a teacher, writer, and orator who eventually founded the Lyceum. (Veatch, 1974) Christianity would not get a foothold for many, many more years. A pupil of Plato’s, and also one of the most well-known and long-respected philosophers, Aristotle didn’t have too many options if he had wanted to stand on the shoulders of giants. (Hunt, 1993) How much relevance can be found in someone’s beliefs from over twenty-three hundred years ago? The answer is surprisingly much. So many great intellectuals and philosophers have stood on Aristotle’s shoulders, that his belief system may spawn a feeling of déjà-vu. How did he feel about living a good life, or pursuing happiness? The Greeks had another word for happiness—to be fair, they had another word for everything. The word is eudaimonia, which actually doesn’t translate directly to happiness, but more toward the concept of “flourishing” or “thriving.” The way to achieve this eudaimonia, he believed, was to embody excellence ...

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...ch, and discover that which makes us and others happy outside our selves, thereby connecting ourselves to the universal stream of life? Or should we practice the “Virtual mean” to achieve eudaimonia? That is for you to decide. For every person must decide their own path on this Earth. Fortunately for us all, it is not necessary that we must do it alone.

Works Cited

Emerson, R. W., & Ed. Porte, J. (1983). Emerson, Ralph Waldo: Essays and Lectures. New York: Library of America.

Guignon, C. (1999). The Good Life. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis. New York: Basic Books.

Hunt, M. (1993). The Story of Psychology. New York: Anchor Books.

Slater, J. (1994). Bertrand Russell. Bristol: Thoemmes Press.

Veatch, H. B. (1974). Aristotle: A Contemporary Appreciation. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press.