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Can we estimate in any way about how happy these people were? I doubt there's an objective measure, but I feel like how to be happy and to live a good life are

by spodek 9y ago

Can we estimate in any way about how happy these people were? I doubt there's an objective measure, but I feel like how to be happy and to live a good life are among of the main goals of philosophy. Are they? Did many of them succeed?

KSS42 9y ago
How happy are you?
empath75 9y ago
Is wager that there is a pretty strong correlation between depression and deep introspection.
artpepper2 9y ago
But "what is happiness" and "what is the good life" are themselves philosophical questions.
paganel 9y ago
> but I feel like how to be happy and to live a good life are among of the main goals of philosophy. Afaik Socrates was saying something about philosophy being the quest for finding out what is "good" and then trying to "reach" it, so nothing directly related to happiness. I'm not a philosopher by any means but I found this description about what philosophy should be as the one closest to the truth. Also, as a pseudo-Kantian I also think that philosophy should have the task of teaching us about our sense of "duty" when pursuing said "good". Putting the two above concepts together you could say that "inquiring what good is and then trying to pursue and reach it out of a sense of innate duty" is what a "good life" should be, so in that respect I think you're correct.
ctchocula 9y ago
This is an interesting perspective, because in his book, "The History of Western Philosophy" recommended elsewhere in this thread, Bertrand Russell makes this one of the metrics by which he rates historical philosophers. For example, he rates Schopenhauer: > He habitually dined well, at a good restaurant; he had many trivial love-affairs, which were sensual but not passionate; he was exceedingly quarrelsome and unusually avaricious. ... It is hard to find in his life evidences of an virtue except kindness to animals ... In all other respects he was completely selfish. It is difficult to believe that a man who was profoundly convinced of the virtue of asceticism and resignation would never have made any attempt to embody his convictions in his practice.
taejavu 9y ago
How to live a good life is the main goal of Stoicism. https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/stoicism-101/ https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/stoicism-101/

by spodek 9y ago

KSS42 9y ago

How happy are you?

empath75 9y ago

Is wager that there is a pretty strong correlation between depression and deep introspection.

artpepper2 9y ago

But "what is happiness" and "what is the good life" are themselves philosophical questions.

paganel 9y ago

> but I feel like how to be happy and to live a good life are among of the main goals of philosophy. Afaik Socrates was saying something about philosophy being the quest for finding out what is "good" and then trying to "reach" it, so nothing directly related to happiness. I'm not a philosopher by any means but I found this description about what philosophy should be as the one closest to the truth. Also, as a pseudo-Kantian I also think that philosophy should have the task of teaching us about our sense of "duty" when pursuing said "good". Putting the two above concepts together you could say that "inquiring what good is and then trying to pursue and reach it out of a sense of innate duty" is what a "good life" should be, so in that respect I think you're correct.

ctchocula 9y ago

This is an interesting perspective, because in his book, "The History of Western Philosophy" recommended elsewhere in this thread, Bertrand Russell makes this one of the metrics by which he rates historical philosophers. For example, he rates Schopenhauer: > He habitually dined well, at a good restaurant; he had many trivial love-affairs, which were sensual but not passionate; he was exceedingly quarrelsome and unusually avaricious. ... It is hard to find in his life evidences of an virtue except kindness to animals ... In all other respects he was completely selfish. It is difficult to believe that a man who was profoundly convinced of the virtue of asceticism and resignation would never have made any attempt to embody his convictions in his practice.

taejavu 9y ago

How to live a good life is the main goal of Stoicism. https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/stoicism-101/ https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/stoicism-101/