DDR-ARCV / 001Doordoorium

A dispute · spans 4 eras

What is the Good Life?

Pleasure, virtue, contemplation, tranquillity, self-creation, defiant happiness?

Maybe the central question philosophy has ever asked. Plato: the philosopher's life of contemplation. Aristotle: the active life of virtue, in a community, with friends and modest fortune. Epicurus: a quiet garden, simple pleasures, deep friendships, no fear of death. The Stoics: virtue is sufficient; everything else is indifferent. Nietzsche: create your own values, affirm the eternal recurrence. Camus: revolt lucidly against the absurd; one must imagine Sisyphus happy. There is no consensus. The continued absence of consensus is part of what makes philosophy worth doing.

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// The sides

Contemplation

The highest life is the life of knowing.

Tranquillity

The good life is freedom from disturbance.

Self-creation

The good life is one we make.

Lucid revolt

The good life is to live the absurd without flinching.