The Good Life

The path to living the good life has been discussed by many and even more have claimed to be the ones who have paved it. However have people such as Benedict, Epictetus, Epicurus, Schopenhauer, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle truly found and lived the good life? To some yes, to many however the search is still on. So then what is the good life? Is it Contemporary Philosophy, Religion, Utilitarian thought, or Stoic belief? The answer is one that has puzzled many since the beginnings of human thought, yes and no. Living the good life all depends on the individual.

Although living the good life relies heavily on the individual there are certain aspects that must be included. Aspects of ethics are a must. Some other things can be left out, religion for instance. Other ideas that have to be included would be the idea of happiness, self preservation, and many thoughts relating to the well being of those surrounding you. However the final goal and aspect of living the good life is the ending result of the complete life. The idea of happiness is one that should not be overlooked as it is in some major thoughts associated with the good life. However none ever really discuss what happiness is because it can vary so much from individual to individual. However there are aspects for happiness that can be defined. Happiness can be reached by minimizing suffering in and around one's life extending it to those who surround him. How can someone consider themselves happy if those surrounding them are feeling nothing but pain and suffering? This does not mean they must go join the peace core but should at least make sure those close to him and in his company are happy.

Areas of happiness that can not be overlooked are pleasures that bring happiness. Various pleasures have various degrees of happiness. Obviously some pleasures are of an upper echelon and others are that of a lower. The utmost pleasure should be brought upon those who bring happiness to those around them. This should be done by any means positive whether it is bringing comedic relief or sharing one of your pleasures that have led you to happiness with those around you. The lowest echelons of pleasures include those things that are unnecessary but no one can deny their result in possible pleasure. These things would include wealth, fame, and possessions that come of them. Someone who denies even this low degree of pleasure as being considered a pleasure can be seen as an act of jealously, since there is nothing indeed wrong with acquiring these things.

Religion is an area which many try to associate the good life with or even around. As this holds true to many thought processes on the good life it is not a necessary area of life that you must lead. If religion of any kind brings you pleasure than the answer is yes, feel free to practice it. Although everyone is free to practice religion of whatever belief it is necessary to understand that strict religious practice should not run your life as it does with the Benedictines, otherwise you will not be able to experience all the pleasures life has to offer. Those who say God is dead, or there is only one God are being selfish in their views and almost taking away the freedom others have to experience pleasure to make them happy.

Freedom could be seen as the keystone of a bridge you need to walk over to continue on the path of leading the good life. With out freedom there is no say in being able to choose the pleasures you want to experience in order to be happy. Freedom is an essential element to any philosophy or way of thinking. If there was no freedom why bother trying to voice your thoughts? Freedom should not be limited to speech, property, and happiness as is assumed by many followers of John Locke. It should however include everything that pertains to the pleasures that lead to happiness. This freedom is only limited when it impedes the happiness of others. The moment you take this freedom away from others the point where you are no longer living the good life.

One of everyone's biggest fears in life is the cease of it. At the end of life, when the inevitable finally happens we all finally die, what will happen and what is the point of the life we just lived? The answer is one that has gone through much discussion through the ages. The life you just lived was to achieve happiness as well as the good life and spread it to those around you in need for it. These people who need someone living the good life's help are often not the people who fear death the most. People who walk the path of the good life have purpose to their life. They are meant to pass on what they have learned and accomplished to those still looking for it.

People fear death because of uncertainty that comes with it. No one has ever come back to tell you what it is like to be dead. However unanswerable what comes after death may be, extinguishing the fear of death is fortunately easy. Death should not be feared but rather accepted as an inevitable part of one's life. Trying to cheat death or avoid it is fruitless. Death is one of the few certainties in the world. Just because you can not avoid death however does not make it a terrible thing. Not everyone should fear death. Only those who have not led the good life should fear death. If you have indeed led the good life, then death will not come as a bad thing but just as another event in your life. By living the good life and ensuring happiness in your life as well as the lives around you death will come to pass as a much easier concept than those opposed to living the good life. By living the good life your life will have fulfilled a sense of completion diminishing the unease of the inevitability of your life's end.

The complete life is the final reward for someone who lived the good life. The complete life is fulfilled upon the moment of one's death and is what lives on through him or her. Do not confuse this for an external life or the idea of being reborn, but instead as your life will continue through the good life of others you have affected. No good deed goes forgotten. If you have truly lived the good life and helped others reached happiness as well brought yourself to complete happiness you can accept death and let your life complete with out fearing its end. Upon accomplishing this you have also accomplished the complete life.

What makes the complete life the final and ultimate reward for someone who has lived the good life is knowing that even in death, your life is still being lived on through others, that you have affected others in a positive way that they too will live the good life. That is the only positive evidence that you will live on in a sense after your death. The complete life is the utmost important pleasure that leads to the final fulfillment of your life.

Achieving the good life in the end relies much on the individual idea of happiness and how to fulfill that happiness. Although fulfilling their own personal happiness is important to them a person living the good life understands that there is no greater happiness than passing on the happiness they have obtained. Upon achieving this life's biggest fears and suffering such as death seem as little as having a hang nail. A happy life should end with a happy reward and reaching the complete life is a reward that can be related to no other. The good life essentially will live on through these means and will never end, nor will the deeds of those who have accomplished it.