Conatus: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

but also a way of becoming the person we would like to be. How can we live a life that is both satisfying but also somehow worthy and, as far as possible, devoid of conflict, at peace with ourselves, with others and with the world at large? These are the questions that the concept of the good life is asking us to consider.

A similar, perhaps related, idea to the good life is the ‘common good’, again derived from Aristotle. He saw us as social and political creatures, who could only find happiness through good community. The idea was carried forward, especially by Thomas Aquinas.

I recognise that all this probably sounds especially pious to modern ears! It might also seem somewhat presumptuous to suggest that we should all have meanings and purposes to our lives, leading towards some kind of virtue. This is something of a theme that occurs throughout the forthcoming chapters on quality, value, meaning and purpose, and then on into morality. But even going back to the last chapter on beauty, we can see something of a similar dilemma creeping in. Is there not, for instance, a bit of elitism around the distinction between the sublime and the beautiful, or the sublime and the pretty? Is it not somehow suggesting that those who contemplate the sublime are somehow culturally — and even morally — superior?

On a similar theme, there is a temptation to think of some folk as having wasted lives whilst others, presumably, lead a life full of meaning, purpose and success. But in order to make such a distinction, we need to qualify it by explaining

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