What constitutes a good life?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Hawkeye, Jun 18, 2009.

  1. Hawkeye Registered Member

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    What is it about someone's life that makes it a "good" life? Is following one's passion in life alone enough to be called a "good" life or does one need to contribute something of worth to society?

    Can someone's life such as Columbus who contributed much to society be deemed a good life on those grounds alone?
     
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  3. ShredMetalBlues Words Laced with Blasphemy Registered Senior Member

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    Good is a subjective term. Its all in what you think constitutes a good life.
     
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  5. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    A good life is one wherein the individual is happy and satisfied with their life and the choices they have made.

    As for what those are, it's up to the individual.
     
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  7. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    To be able to see and touch the face of God in your fellow man...to be at peace with all of your mistakes, all of your blemishes, all of your misdeeds....to have pushed the limits...to fall on your face...to pick yourself up and try again...to never be defeated...to endure utill the very end...to add small graces, small smiles in the faces of those you meet even under the cruelest of skies...to move with grace through even the darkest night...this is grace...this is the work of God.
     
  8. oiram Registered Senior Member

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    Well I live a good life compared to many others as I’m young, I don’t work, I don’t free load off society, and have never taken a government handout in any form, I have enough of my own money to live on comfortably and I do whatever I want whenever I want regardless of any laws or rules. I don’t have many regrets in my life, even my mistakes I own and acknowledge my failings as experiences to learn from. So I consider myself to have a good life, yes but it’s boring and unfulfilling at times but nevertheless it’s a good easy life.

    I do lack education, and some other things social skills but those don’t affect the quality of my life.

    I also think it’s all in how you feel about your life. I mean I bet Hitler right up to the end felt he had a great life, he had money, power, riches and anything else he wanted and then it all came to an end but so could my life with cancer or getting hit by a truck. It’s how others looked at Hitler’s life that might make that a different perspective but then again they people might say the same about my life.
     
  9. Anti-Flag Pun intended Registered Senior Member

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    I am agreeing with norsefire, this is a very sad day in my life as I must now commit Seppuku.
     
  10. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Well I will disagree with your assesment of Hitler. He obviously was a man not aquainted or concerned with spirtual growth. If he were, he would not have committed sucide. He would not have hated. He would not have killed. He would not has used others to achieve his aims. A good life is not about stuff. It is about yourself. It is about not being spirtually needy for things or others.
     
  11. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    "Spiritual growth" is a meaningless concept, there is no spirit.
     
  12. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    Right, but everything you say is contingent upon some sort of relation between "good" and "spiritual". Suffice it to say, whether or not this relation is relevent, is entirely contingent upon one's particular beliefs.
     
  13. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    Exactly.
     
  14. oiram Registered Senior Member

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    How can you disagree with my assessment, well I mean you can but on what basis. I used Hitler as an example only because he had a good life, while others though he was a racial bigot who murdered millions (which he was and did) but he still had a great life. It’s those people in the camps cooking in the ovens that didn’t.

    As for getting acquainted with his spiritual side, what kind of crap is that? Because you think others should “get aquatinted” and they don’t means they didn’t have a good life? What does killing yourself have to do with having a good life? I have had a very good life but I know if I got cancer or was facing certain issues I too would kill myself and cut my loses but I would have still lived a good life.
     
  15. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Noresfire, Gaucon,

    You my brothers are wrong. Spirtuality has traditionally been associated with God I grant you...being one with God.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

    Being spiritual is being or the perception of being connected to a larger reality...something beyond the self. Some call that God and then attach definitions to God. I think any objective observation of the universe indicates that we are a part of a much bigger event...whatever that event is. Spiritual is being at home and comfortable with yourself and your roll in the universe. If you are truely spiritual, you do not need others. You do not need things.

    Oriam,
    Can you tell me Hitler knew what love is? To have a good life, one needs to know and experience all of life's joys and griefs.
     
  16. oiram Registered Senior Member

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    He had Eva Bruam (Spelling?) didnt he? He also loved killing and being in power, so those thing brought him joy.
     
  17. glaucon tending tangentially Registered Senior Member

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    I'm not denying any such association.


    However, just because a notion has a history, this says nothing whatsoever about its relation to another notion.

    Compare: Dracula has been traditionally associated with evil.
     
  18. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Possession is not love. You can have a lot of things and not know love. Hitler killed Jews, homosexuals, and dissidents out of fear and hate, not love.
     
  19. oiram Registered Senior Member

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    He didn’t posses Eva and I believe he truly loved her

    He might have hated all those you mentioned but he loved killing them.
     
  20. oiram Registered Senior Member

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    Dracula BITES!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  21. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Love is nurturing and growing, not keeping them.
     
  22. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

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    The greatest and the best is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters. On those grounds I think we can say that Genghis Khan would have believed Columbus had a very good life.
     
  23. oiram Registered Senior Member

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    You’re talking about love and we are talking about living a good life, and that’s all up to who is living it and what they enjoy.
     

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