How to live a good life

By Massimo pigliucci

A guide to choosing your personal philosohy

• The ancient Eastern philosophy of Buddhism values ethics above all.
• Confucianism is about relationships, while Daoism teaches us to act in harmony with the world
  • Fundamental to Confucianism, according to the scholar Bryan Van Norden, is the fact that we cannot exist independently of others. After all, our parents are the only reason we exist. So, in order to live well, we must maintain our relationships.
  • Daoism shares Confucianism's sense of interconnectedness, but it places emphasis on nature. It embraces things on their own terms and never lets emotions cloud thoughts. Some people think that Daoism is just about being with nature, but there's more to it than that. Our relationship with nature can represent the challenges we face in life.
  • A contemporary example of a Daoist mindset is what Professor Robin R. Wang calls the "Realtor's mentality." A realtor might work for 30 clients at once knowing that only a couple will buy from him. Rather than getting frustrated by the low success rate, the realtor learns not to fixate on any one client and calmly accepts the reality of that situation.
• Aristotelianism encourages us to flourish -- but acknowledges that external factors also play their part.
  • An Aristotelian is someone who follows Aristotle's teachings from his famous work, Nicomachean Ethics.
  • Think of a very talented tennis player -- someone who is good enough to count as one of the all-time greats. If she lives during a period when the competition is weak, she will never be able to prove her talent. That player simply won't have an opportunity to flourish.
  • Unfortunately, we're not all equally capable of this -- just like that talented tennis player. Think of someone born into an unsupportive family, or someone whose life is ruined by a natural disaster. It's harder for these people to flourishthrough no fault of their own.
• Stoicism focuses on indifference, while Epicureanism focuses on pleasure.
  • ataraxia-- a state of tranquility -- so she will be able to cope calmly with misfortune.
  • Stoics divide things outside their control into two categories: preferred and dispreferred indifferents. Think about wealth. Being rich is always going to be preferred, while being poor is dis-preferred. But Stoicism says that your level of wealth doesn't affect how virtuous you are. A rich person may be either good or bad. So, wealth is "indifferent" and doesn't affect whether you're a good person.
  • A Stoic's focus on indifference can also help with negative emotions. Say someone insults you. Rather than getting angry, think about the criticism. Is there any truth in it? If so, the insulter has done you a favor. If not, who cares? The person is wrong. Not that we should be emotionless. Stoicism does allow for positive emotions like joy and love.
  • Epicureanism places more emphasis on feeling. In fact, it's based around the simple concept of pleasure.
    • We all naturally strive for pleasure. Even babies avoid pain and seek pleasure -- it's what philosopher and author Hiram Crespo calls the pleasure-aversion faculty. That doesn't mean unbridled hedonism, though -- not if we practice hedonic calculus. Hedonic calculus involves weighing whether something is likely to prove pleasurable in the longer term.
    • So an epicure wouldn't simply drink all the beer in one evening. He would recognize that, after a certain number of beers, the overall experience -- hangover included -- wouldn't be pleasurable. Conversely, some major decisions like studying at a university might be painful at first, but pleasurable in the long run.
• Hinduism and Progressive Islam both bring ancient ideas into a modern context.
  • Progressive Islam rejects extremism, champions social and gender justice, and embraces the multiple faiths that make up the modern world.
• "Ethical values like justice and fairness do not remain frozen in time." -- Adis Duderija
• In both Judaism and Christianity, scripture provides an opportunity for reflection.
• Ethical Culture and secular humanism are two philosophies that don't involve belief in God.
  • Ethical Culture, which defines itself as a non-theistic religion. As its name suggests, it places a strong emphasis on ethics and the value of community. It emphasizes the importance of these traditional values by having a clergy, like many theistic religions.
  • Secular humanism, on the other hand, is not a religion. It's a non-dogmatic philosophy that stresses the importance of independent thinking.
  • Guided by reason, secular humanism offers a practical way to understand and improve the human condition. The emphasis on reason means that secular humanism respects science deeply.
• Existentialism and pragmatism both reflect on the ways in which we are free.
  • Did you choose to be born? No? Neither did anyone else.
  • That's the starting point for existentialism, the twentieth-century philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Having been born, we are conscious and free to make our own choices. Hence, in Sartre's words, we are "condemned to be free."
  • There's something contradictory about existentialism, as Skye C. Cleary acknowledges. Actually calling yourself an existentialist contradicts what it's really about. We shouldn't let ourselves be defined by any particular set of beliefs; instead, we should simply be authentic to ourselves. And as individuals, we're too complex to be summed up by a simple label anyway -- especially since we're all constantly changing.
  • Sartre gave the example of a waiter who's good at his job. He comes to believe that being a waiter is what defines him. But no single role can ever define a person. We must acknowledge that things will change in the future, just like they did in the past.
• Effective altruism is just one way we're still exploring philosophical questions today.
  • Effective altruism takes a simple approach. It asks its followers to examine how they can maximize their positive impact on the world. In many cases, this is through donating as much as possible to charity. Or it might be through taking on jobs that do exceptional amounts of good.

Seven Amazing Tips To Live A Good Life - YouTube

1. Naukari - Do it sincerely
2. Shaadi - Marry with a strong woman
3. Friends - Chose them wisely
4. Own asset which gives you cash flow
5. Learn Something new, Be Curious
6. Turn your Jealousy into positive response
7. Spend money to save your time

Effective altruism