Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

13. The Good Life

‘Beauty is the promise of happiness.’

Krister Stendhal

To have a good life is more than just about a series of random good things happening to us. Perhaps a few people aim just for this, but even if someone were only interested in maximising their chances of achieving a stream of pleasurable experiences, clearly there would still be some planning involved.

Aristotle saw the need for a sense of purpose in life in order for a life to be properly called good. This sense of purpose, for him, had to be closely related to a pursuit of virtue.

So we see a kind of progression emerging here. Aesthetics might be described as just isolated instances of beauty. But beauty itself leads into a sense of the rightness of things, and seeing leads us into an appreciation of moral rightness. Seeing is our first apprehension of value. The good life is about adding meanings and purposes to this. As such, the good life deploys a certain amount of rationality to our pursuit of happiness. The meanings and purposes are not simply about superficial pleasures but about a deep and lasting joy. Life, for each of us, is a plan, not just to achieve happiness and security,

141