The Good Life

Thanks to everyone who posted last week on my question of "What does it mean to be a human being?" or "What is a human being."
Before I get too in depth in this article, if you will look to the right of the page, you'll see a "Digg" button. If you enjoy this article, please click on the Digg button. Digg is a website that links to frequently visited websites, so say for instance I get 200 Diggs, that may put me on their website, which will build my reader base and allow me to reach a larger audience. It's also a cool way to see what other people are reading these days, check out their website: http://digg.com/


Now, I received some very interesting and differing opinions on what it means to be a human, such as:

Being a human means...
Having a specific genetic makeup
Being able to become something more than you are
Possessing Free Will
Being moral beings
Being a product of our biological and social environments

All of those are very credible definitions of what it means to be a human. So, the definition we have to work with is human beings have a specific genetic makeup, possess the ability to become more than they are, have free will, possess a knowledge of right and wrong, and are products of their environments. That's a pretty solid definition! So, let's work with that.

My next question is this: How do we evaluate our lives as humans? By what standard do we measure living "the good life?" Based upon the genetic definition above would you say that being a "good" human means having the perfect genetic make-up, for example, being the ideal height, having perfect vision, not being bald, etc.?

But, now that I think of it, before we can pose this question, we must first answer the question of "What does it mean for something to be good or bad?" Is there such a thing as good or bad? Some philosophers will argue that there is no objective good or bad, basically good is what you like and bad is what you don't like.

So, this week's question is "Is there such a thing as Good and Bad, and if so what does it mean for something to be Good or Bad."

Plato had an interesting view of Good and Bad based upon his belief in the realm of the forms. Basically, Plato believed that there was a perfect world outside of ours, where everything that exists in this world has an ideal version of it in that perfect world. For example, we have chairs in our world, but in the world of the forms there is a perfect chair. And something was judged as good or bad depending on how much it correlated to its version in the world of the forms. This belief is also commonly used using God as the ideal. In this view, God is the perfect standard, the things we do that are closest to God are considered good and the things we do against God's nature are considered bad or sin.
Another philosophical school, the utilitarians, argue that good is quantifiable in the greatest utility for the greatest number. Here's an example: Let's say you have five people dying in a hospital: one needs a kidney, one needs a heart, one needs a lung, etc. Then a semi-healthy guy comes in for a check-up. In the utilitarian view, the "good" thing to do would be to carve up the healthy guy and give his healthy organs to the five other people. So, you have five healthy people vs. one. The greatest utility for the greatest number.
Perhaps the most famous ideal of the good is the "Golden Rule." Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The philosopher Immanuel Kant called this the Categorical Imperative. Which basically said "People are never to be used as a means to an end, but should be viewed as an end unto themselves."

So, there are a lot of views on this subject. What do you think?

Reason for Hope this week: Check out this website:
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

Check out this poem by Mother Theresa titled "Anyway"

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.