What Is The Good Life And How To Achieve It

The common notion of the good life is that everyone wants to have money, a big house, a perfect family, and a perfect job, like the "American dream." However, I feel that a good life is when there is happiness, love, hard work, achieving success, and respect. In my opinion, a good life must have a good family, success in reaching and achieving goals. If one accepts hedonism, then life is about living where there is much pleasure. However, to live life to the fullest, experiences are important, and we need to experience pain, struggle, and hard work to achieve the life goals that everyone strives for. This is because it brings an awareness of the importance and purpose of life. So, what is the good life?

When one experiences pain, the whole process of hurting and overcoming pain makes one strong enough to become even stronger for future sorrows and pains in order to achieve one's life purpose. Personally, I would not accept hedonism because it is an ever-changing theory and that it can be interpreted very differently depending on who the hedonist is. Hedonism is a theory that is very malleable in the sense that it is constantly changing. In a simple definition, "hedonism" is a theory of value that tells us what is good and what is bad, and states that living a good life means living for pleasure. However, another doctrine that may fall under hedonism is "epicureanism. This doctrine asserts that the greatest good is to seek as many pleasures as possible in order to remain calm and satisfied. For further explanation, we can consider two other aspects that fall under hedonism: "Egoism" and "utilitarianism. Egoism asserts that any action is morally good according to the effect it has on yourself, whereas utilitarianism focuses on how the greatest good affects those around you. Therefore, if a person calls himself a hedonist but is very selfish about money, food, love, etc., he could call himself an egoist because having all the money and food for himself produces the greatest good for himself. Moreover, a person could also commit acts, e.g., Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor.

We all know that stealing is immoral, but can we call Robin Hood a utilitarian? Because the action he took had a positive effect on the poor. Similarly, hedonism has many other theories and views underneath it, to the point that while hedonism is based on pleasure as a major factor in living well, there is still no clear understanding of exactly what kind of pleasure we are talking about. This brings us to the second point: because this theory is very flexible, it can be interpreted and used in any way possible. For example: a drug addict who is a hedonist can claim that he lives a "good life" because, although drug abuse is not healthy and even illegal in some places, it gives him pleasure. Now you could say he is a hedonist or an egoist because his drug use simply affects him physically and affects only himself and no one else around him. What is good and what is pleasant varies subjectively from person to person, even though the general situation of doing an action may be wrong, what a person may do in that particular scenario may be considered good, depending on whether or not he gets pleasure from it. Pleasure or even happiness is an intrinsically good factor, but I think there is no other intrinsically good factor. Any material or action of altruism results in one feeling very happy, and so one does it.

But why do people want to be happy? People have no reason to be happy. People want to be happy because they want to be happy. In my view, the only intrinsic good is pleasure/happiness, and everything else that is an instrumental good always leads to one feeling happy. People would link "eudemonia" and "hedonism" in order to live well, but only with pleasure. However, if there is no other intrinsic factor, then living the best life would simply mean having endless amounts of pleasure; nevertheless, we return to the same cycle, that living well does not mean living only in pleasure. If we look at the example of Robert Nozick's "Experience Machine" idea, hedonists will enter into it. c. You would give up relationships with your loved ones, the real possibilities of happiness, success, etc. will not be felt, the process of fighting your own battles and knowing that sometimes it will not lead to success is okay, however, that power will never be experienced, and finally, an important part of experiencing and creating memories will never be possible. Everyone should live the "good life" and live it the way they want to live it. But pleasure is not just one thing; it varies from action to person, to thing, etc.

As mentioned earlier, pleasure is subjective, and no one has a clear idea of what it really is, so without a clear idea of what that pleasure is, does it make someone feel happy regardless of the situation? Or is there some kind of guide to pleasure and to judging whether it is morally good or bad? Nevertheless, to reach that moment in life when everything is good, we need to feel and experience, to feel the satisfaction of having that good life we wanted, because of ourselves.