Western Philosophies on A Good Life

Hygge (Danish)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

Dolce Vita (Italian)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_dolce_vita

Eudaimonia (Greek)

(Wiki): In Classical Greek, Term for highest human good, aim for practical philosophy, ethics and political philosophy

Greek-English Terms

• Eudaimonia (Greek): Happiness, Human Flourishing (English)
• Eu: Good
• Daimon: Spirit
• Phronesis: Practical or Moral Wisdom
• Virtue (Christian connotations of charity, patience, uprightness)
• Arete: Virtue or Excellence (Character, not moral trait. Includes non-moral excellence such as physical strength and beauty)

People and Schools of Thought

Aristotle Vs Stoics definition of Eudaimonia

Aristotle: Virtue and exercise as most important constituent in eudaimonia, with importance of external goods such s health, wealth and beauty

Stoics: Virtue necessary and sufficient without external goods.

Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

Eudaimonia: Doing and living well.

Discrepancy between eudaimonia and happiness.

Aristotle: Activities for eudaimon life: Life of pleasure, Life of political activity, philosophical life

Epicurious: Virtue bound to Happiness, arete bound with eudaimonia.

Arete Vs Virtue

Main Views on Eudaimonia and relations with Arete and Virtue

• Socrates: Virtue is necessary and sufficient for eudaimonia. Virtues such as self control, courage, justice, piety, wisdom and related qualities of mind and soul crucial to lead a good and happy life. Life of honor or pleasure is not eudainon.
• Plato:
• Aristotle: Eudaimonia involves activity, exhibiting virtue in accordance with reason. Activities exercising the rational part of the psyche in accordance to the virues of excellences of reason.
• Epicurious: Eudaimon life with life of pleasure. An object, experience, or state of affairs is intrinsically valuable if it is good simply because of what it is. A continuous experience of pleasure, freedom from pain and distress. Not a pursuit of any and every pleasure, but policy where pleasures are maximized. (no instant gratification)
• Stoics. Good flow of life, living in agreement with nature, living in accordance with experiecne of what happens by nature. Morally Virtuous life (Closer to christian ones) alone is sufficient. Virtues: Justice, honesty, moderation, simplicity, self-discipline, resolve, fortitude, courage

Eudaimonia and Modern psychology

Ryff: Eudaimonia is different from hedonic well being. Belonging and benefiting others, flourishing, thriving and exercising excellence.

6 factor structure: Autonomy, personal growth, self-acceptance, purpose in life, environmental mastery, psotive relations iwth others.

Scales for assessing mental health.

Led to Self-Realisation and means of Accomplishment (by Erikson, Allport and Maslow)

Summum Bonum Vs Eupraxophy

Eupraxophy

Kurtz: philosophies or lifestances (humanism and confucianism) that do not rely on belief of transcendent or supernatural. Non religious lifestance or worldview emphasizing importance of living an ethical and exuberant life, relying on rational mehtods suchs as logic, observation and science (rather than faith, mysticism or revelation) toward that end. Eu: Good, Prax:Practice and ophy:Wisdom.

Summum Bonum

(Latin for highest good): expression in medivial and kantian philosophies. Ultimate importance, singular and most ultimate end which humans ought to pursue.

4 categories of highest good:

• Utilitarianism: Maximum possible psychological happiness for maxiumum number of people
• Eudaemonism or Virtue Ethics: Flourishing
• Rational Deontologism: Virtue or duty
• Rational Eudaemonism or Tempered deontologism: virtue and happiness combined.

Hedonism

(Wiki): Pleasure is the only intrinsic good, strive to maximize net pleasure (pleasure - pain)

Greek-English Terms

• hedonismos: Delight
• Hedone: Pleasure
• Ataraxia: Lucid state freedom from worry or preoccupation

People and Schools of thought

• Classical Schools
  • Democritus: Supreme goal of life is "contentment" or "cheerfulness"
  • Cārvāka : Indian, Naturalistic worldview that sensual indulgence is not wrong. No afterlife, pleasure aim of living.
  • Cyrenaics School and Aristippus: Ultra Hedonist, intrinsic good is pleasure, not absence of pain but positively enjoyable sensations. Momentary physical pleasures stronger than anticipation or memory. Social obligation is valued with alruism giving pleasure.
  • Epicureanism and Epicurus: Greatest good to seek modest pleasures in order to attain state of tranquility, ataraxia (freedom from fear) and aponia (absence of bodily pain) through knowledge of workings of the world and limits of our desires. Highest pleasure (Tranquility and freedom from fear) obtained from knowledge, friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. Simple pleasures close to abstinence and or asceticism.
• Christian Hedonism
• Utilitarianism
  • Mohism - Chinese School of Thought by Mo Zi - 5th Century BC
  • Ethical Utilitarism + Hedonism
    • For Quantitative: Jeremy Bentham
    • Against Quantitative: John Stuart Mill
• Egoism
  • Psychological Egoism + Hedonism
  • Ethical Egoism + Hedonism
• Contemporary
  • Michel Onfray
  • Torbjörn Tännsjö
  • Abolitionism

Epicureanism Vs Platonism and Epicureanism Vs Stoicism

Confucianism

Stoicism

Platonism

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism

From: http://www.englisharticles.info/2011/02/10/ethical-hedonism/

• 2 View of Hedonism
  • Psychological Hedonism
  • Ethical Hedonism
• Major Philosophers
  • Aristippus (ca. 435–350 BCE)
  • Epicurus (341–271 BCE)
  • Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832),
  • Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
  • John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
  • Peter Singer

Stoicism

(Wiki)

• Basic Tenets
  • Unified account of the world
    • formal logic
    • non-dualistic physics
    • naturalisticethics (main focus of human knowledge, though their logical theories were of more interest for later philosophers)
  • Seeks
    • development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions
    • a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason (logos).
    • Improving the individual’s ethical and moral well-being:
      • "Virtue consists in awill that is in agreement with Nature."[6]This principle also applies to the realm of interpersonal relationships; "to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy,"[7]and to accept even slaves as "equals of other men, because all men alike are products of nature."[8]
  • deterministic perspective
    • Cleanthes the wicked (not Stoic) is "like a dog tied to a cart, and compelled to go wherever it goes."[6] A Stoic of virtue, by contrast, would amend his will to suit the world and remain, in the words of Epictetus, "sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy,"[7] thus positing a "completely autonomous" individual will, and at the same time a universe that is "a rigidly deterministic single whole."
• Misconceptions
  • Modern definition of 'stoic' has come to mean 'unemotional' or indifferent to pain, because Stoic ethics taught freedom from 'passion' by following 'reason.' But The Stoics did not seek to extinguish emotions; rather, they sought to transform them by a resolute 'askēsis' that enables a person to develop clear judgment and inner calm.[18] Logic, reflection, and concentration were the methods of such self-discipline.
• Etymology
  • Beginning at around 301 BC, Zeno taught philosophy at the Stoa Poikile (i.e., "the painted porch"), from which his philosophy got its name.[11] Unlike the other schools of philosophy, such as the Epicureans, Zeno chose to teach his philosophy in a public space, which was a colonnade overlooking the central gathering place of Athens, the Agora.
• History
  • Early Stoa
    • Zeno
    • Chrysippus
    • Antipater.
  • Middle Stoa
    • Panaetius
    • Posidonius.
  • Late Stoa
    • Musonius Rufus
    • Seneca
    • Epictetus
    • Marcus Aurelius.
  • Socrates --> Antisthenes (Founder of Cynics) --> Zeno --> Chrysippus (moulding of what is now called Stoicism) --> Roman Stoics (promoting a life in harmony within the universe, over which one has no direct control.)
• Stoic Logic
  • Propositional Logic Vs Aristotle's term logic.
    • Based on Statements
    • First proposed by Diodorus Cronus, developed by Chrysippus into stoic Logic
    • Bobzien also notes that "Chrysippus wrote over 300 books on logic, on virtually any topic logic today concerns itself with, including speech act theory, sentence analysis, singular and plural expressions, types of predicates, indexicals,existential propositions, sentential connectives, negations,disjunctions, conditionals, logical consequence, valid argumentforms, theory of deduction, propositional logic,modal logic,tense logic,epistemic logic,logic of suppositions, logic of imperatives, ambiguity and logical paradoxes."[14]
  • Stoic Beliefs
    • All being (ὄντα) -- though not all things (τινά) -- are corporeal.
    • distinction between concrete bodies and abstract ones, but rejected Aristotle's belief that purely incorporeal being exists.
      • AcceptedAnaxagoras'idea (as did Aristotle) that if an object is hot, it is because some part of a universal heat body had entered the object. But, unlike Aristotle, they extended the idea to cover allaccidents. Thus if an object is red, it would be because some part of a universal red body had entered the object.
  • four Categories
    • substance (ὑποκείμενον): The primary matter, formless substance, (ousia) that things are made of
    • quality (ποιόν): The way matter is organized to form an individual object; in Stoic physics, a physical ingredient (pneuma: air or breath), which informs the matter
    • somehow disposed (πως ἔχον): Particular characteristics, not present within the object, such as size, shape, action, and posture
    • Somehow disposed in relation to something (πρός τί πως ἔχον): Characteristics related to other phenomena, such as the position of an object within time and space relative to other objects
  • Epistemology
    • knowledge can be attained through the use of reason. Truth can be distinguished from fallacy; even if, in practice, only an approximation can be made.
    • the senses constantly receive sensations: pulsations that pass from objects through the senses to the mind, where they leave an impression in theimagination (phantasia). (An impression arising from the mind was called a phantasma.)[15]
    • The mind has the ability to judge (sunkatathesis)—approve or reject—an impression, enabling it to distinguish a true representation of reality from one that is false.
    • Some impressions can be assented to immediately, but others can only achieve varying degrees of hesitant approval, which can be labeled belief or opinion (doxa).
    • only through reason that we achieve clear comprehension and conviction (katalepsis).
    • Certain and true knowledge (episteme), achievable by the Stoic sage, can be attained only by verifying the conviction with the expertise of one's peers and the collective judgment of humankind.
• Stoic Physics and Cosmology (To be expoused)
• Stoic Ethics and Values
  • Foundations
    • Foundation of Stoic ethics (Based on Cynics): good lies in the state of the soul itself; in wisdom and self-control.
    • Rule of Stoic ethics "Follow where reason leads.": One must therefore strive to be free of the passions (ancient meaning of 'passion' was "anguish" or "suffering") and to be free from"passively" reacting to external events
    • Pathos Vs Propathos Vs Eupathos
      • Pathos (plural pathe): translated as passion
      • Propathos: instinctive reaction
      • Eupathos (mark of the Stoic sage, sophos). Eupatheia are feelings that result from correct judgment in the same way as passions result from incorrect judgment.
    • The idea was to be free of suffering through apatheia (Greek: ἀπάθεια) or peace of mind (literally,'without passion'),[20] where peace of mind was understood in the ancient sense—being objective or having "clear judgment" and the maintenance of equanimity in the face of life's highs and lows.
    • For the Stoics, 'reason' meant not only using logic, but also understanding the processes of nature—the logos, or universal reason, inherent in all things. Living according to reason and virtue, they held, is to live in harmony with the divine order of the universe, in recognition of the common reason and essential value of all people. The four cardinal virtues of the Stoic philosophy are wisdom (Sophia), courage (Andreia), justice (Dikaiosyne), and temperance (Sophrosyne), a classification derived from the teachings of Plato.
    • Following Socrates, the Stoics held that unhappiness and evil are the results of human ignorance of the reason in nature. If someone is unkind, it is because they are unaware of their own universal reason, which leads to the conclusion of kindness. The solution to evil and unhappiness then, is the practice of Stoic philosophy—to examine one's own judgments and behavior and determine where they diverge from the universal reason of nature.
    • The Stoics accepted that suicide was permissible for the wise person in circumstances that might prevent them from living a virtuous life.[21] Plutarch held that accepting life under tyranny would have compromised Cato's self-consistency (constantia) as a Stoic and impaired his freedom to make the honourable moral choices.[22] Suicide could be justified if one fell victim to severe pain or disease,[21] but otherwise suicide would usually be seen as a rejection of one's social duty.[23]
  • The doctrine of "things indifferent"
    • In philosophical terms, things that are indifferent are outside the application of moral law, that is without tendency to either promote or obstruct moral ends. Actions neither required nor forbidden by the moral law, or that do not affect morality, are called morally indifferent. The doctrine of things indifferent (ἀδιάφορα, adiaphora) arose in the Stoic school as acorollary of its diametric opposition of virtue and vice (καθήκοντα kathekon and ἁμαρτήματα hamartemata, respectively "convenient actions," or actions in accordance with nature, and mistakes). As a result of this dichotomy, a large class of objects were left unassigned and thus regarded as indifferent.
    • Eventually three sub-classes of "things indifferent" developed: things to prefer because they assist life according to nature; things to avoid because they hinder it; and things indifferent in the narrower sense.
    • The principle of adiaphora was also common to the Cynics and Sceptics. The conception of things indifferent is, according to Kant, extra-moral. The doctrine of things indifferent was revived during the Renaissance by Philip Melanchthon.
  • Spiritual exercise
    • Philosophy for a Stoic is not just a set of beliefs or ethical claims, it is a way of life involving constant practice and training (or askesis, see asceticism). Stoic philosophical and spiritual practices included logic, Socratic dialogue and self-dialogue, contemplation of death, training attention to remain in the present moment (similar to some forms of Eastern meditation), daily reflection on everyday problems and possible solutions, hypomnemata, and so on. Philosophy for a Stoic is an active process of constant practice and self-reminder.
    • In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius defines several such practices. For example, in Book II, part 1: Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together...
    • Prior to Aurelius, Epicetus in his Discourses distinguished between three topoi: judgement, desire and inclination.[24] According to French philosopher Pierre Hadot, Epicetus identifies these three acts with logic, physics and ethics respectively.[25] Hadot writes that in the Meditations "Each maxim develops either one of these very characteristic topoi, or two of them or three of them."[26]
    • The practices of spiritual exercises have been described as influencing those of reflective practice by Seamus Mac Suibhne .[27]Parallels between Stoic spiritual exercises and modern cognitive-behavioural therapy have been detailed at length in Robertson's The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy.[28
• Stoic Philosophy

Epicureanism

(Wiki)