Good Life Essay

1293 Words3 Pages

The Good Life The good life, can be described as a multitude of different things for many different people and often varies within cultures and generations. While basic desires of the good life often include good health, wealth, and companionship, we all usually desire a bit more, personal wants. As discussed in class and throughout the readings, each philosopher presented to us had varying degrees of what they consider to be the good life and ways in which the good life can be achieved. While each philosopher had certain appealing aspects to there argument, I felt that Ralph Waldo Emerson’s idea of the good life best fit with desires and beliefs I previously held about life. It is especially easy, in our current society, to fall into the
For starters, our society puts a big emphasis on helping those who are considered lower than us with things like charity and such. But as brought to my attention, we really only give to these charities as an apology that we believe for living in this world. We are taught that because we are “more blessed” than others we need to give back and help them. But the fact is we only do so for the assurance from others and because we feel a sense of guilt for our being better off than others. Society needs to let the individuals determine on their own what they choose to do, free from the pressures of others. We are constantly concerned with what others think of us that we become trapped in self absorption which is a cause of unhappiness, according to Emerson. We as a society must also encourage individuality and creativity and not punish those who defy the normal. Conformity in today’s society is far more prevalent than individuality and this is showing to become detrimental to the advancements of our people. We need to place an emphasis on discovering your true self while discouraging conformity and focusing on inward behaviors and

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