Exotic Journeys: A Tourist's Guide to Philosophy

brought to you by Ron Yezzi

Emeritus Professor of Philosophy

Minnesota State University, Mankato

© Copyright 1986, 1994, 2015 by Ron Yezzi

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(Author's Note: The account below, with slight modifications, is taken from Ron Yezzi, Philosophical Problems: The Good Life (Mankato: G. Bruno & Co., 1994), p. 123.)

Introduction

Given a problem, we generally believe that there is a right and a wrong way to go about solving it. Similarly, philosophers commonly agree that proper answers to philosophical questions depend upon use of the proper method. With the right method, adequate answers come; with the wrong one, adequacy either eludes us or results from coincidence. Method is important because it determines what questions should be asked, how they should be answered, and even what constitutes a correct answer. Consequently, philosophers tend to focus upon the sort of question to be considered now: How can the good life be known?

As the schema below shows, negative answers to the basic question are possible. That is, some philosophers deny that we can know what the good life is.

How Can the Good Life Be Known?