What is the relation between living a good
life and being happy? To many, the good life is a financially prosperous life,
and happiness lies in the possession of wealth. Worldly success is what counts,
and anyone who is not ‘successful’ in the usual sense is counted a ‘failure.’
Others strive for a life based on honor and public recognition. A good life is
made up of hobnobbing with the right people in the right settings, and
happiness is a matter of gaining respect. Along with these, there are lives
that show by their living a desire for glory or power that inspires great
efforts. Others, who are not drawn to wealth, power or glory because of the
difficulties involved in attaining them, may choose the pursuit of pleasure. A
good and happy life is one in which pleasures outweigh the pains overall. Many
questions have been asked about the good life and happiness. People constantly
answer those questions with their lives, and we see many different ideas of the
good life and happiness playing out in the strivings of human beings to live
well and be happy.
The ancient Greeks wished their friends to
‘do well’ and ‘fare well’ in this life. These two, they thought, held the keys
to human felicity. Doing well concerns ourselves, our own actions and feelings.
We have some control over these aspects of our lives. So when we wish someone to 'do well' in life,
we express the hope that the person will be moral and fair in his or her dealings
with others. Beyond securing basic physical survival, someone who does well in
life can sleep with a clear conscience, whether blessed with material success
or not. From many a philosophical point of view, the good life has an
intrinsically moral core that involves compassion for the suffering of others
and acting justly in the world.
‘Faring well’ concerns events and
occurrences over which we do not have so much control. "Faring well"
means succeeding in life, coming into a prosperous condition, with all the
benefits that come with money and social acceptance. Someone who is faring well
in life has had a bit of good luck. It is possible to do everything right in
order to succeed, but still fail to do so. For example, you can study hard for
your degree, get your professional qualifications, work diligently, become
competent, but still not succeed. The cards may not fall your way. As Sartre
says, "You are free to try, but not to succeed." This seems right to
me, and so I will come down with Aristotle against Plato on this point, that
doing well is not all that is involved in attaining happiness in life.
Plato's Socrates famously says that the
good person cannot be harmed, that virtue is knowledge, and that happiness
consists entirely of doing well and being just. Aristotle argues that a degree
of luck plays into our happiness. He insists that most of our happiness is in
our own hands, but that it can be affected by outside circumstances. So while
being happy is mostly a matter of 'doing well' (and ‘thinking well’), great
misfortunes can damage our happiness. It may be that such a person, by 'doing
well,' will attain a degree of dignity in suffering, but he will not be happy;
or, as Aristotle has it, 'blessed.'
In light of this result, I hazard an
intuitive philosophical account of the relation between the good life and
happiness. Living a good life is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for
happiness. In other words, it is possible to live a good life without being
happy, but not happy without living a good life. This a 'philosophical' account
of the relation because many philosophers have a particular idea of happiness
and the good life that is not shared by everyone, with their emphasis on
clarity of thought and sound reasoning. In addition, though philosophers
recommend the philosophical life as both the happiest and the best, they are
not in a position to legislate for everyone what happiness must be.
Nevertheless, the traditional philosophical view is not without support. All we
have to do is look at the results of many lives that strive for wealth, power,
fame, glory or pleasure. So many disasters befall those who pursue a good life
with no moral core, or reflective turn of mind, that it makes some sense, as
philosophers argue, to pursue the wisdom to recognize the good life, and, within
that life, such happiness human beings can attain.
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