Achieving the good life Flashcards
Croesus
King of Lydia-current day Turkey. Focused on wealth. Thought wealth brought happiness/made you blessed. Solon visited the palace of Croesus at Sardis. Croesus was over joyed and asked who was the most blessed. Solon first picked Tellusof Athens who lived well/happily, had beautiful family, and fought for country. Then Croesus asked again. Second choice was Brothers Cleobis and Bito who died right after doing something honorable for mother. They died before they could be tarnished so died holy. Arrogant/naive. Materialistic. Learned that money does not equal happiness. Relation with gods saved him on the pier of fire by creating a rain storm.
Solon of Athens
Athenian statesman and noted poet. Born into distinguished family. Known as one of seven wise men of Greece. Helped make law regarding trading which helped an economic recovery.
Tellus of Athens
Solon picked him as the most blessed man. He died gloriously in war. Had a beautiful family.
“Count no man as happy until he died”
life is subject to change-bad can happen. For example, at first Croesus was happy and blessed but then his son died by a boar and his wife committed suicide. Fire-being saved.
Cyrus the great of Persia
King of Persia and founder of Achaemenid. Crosesus tried to take over his empire but failed. Cyrus was going to kill him on the pyre of fire but when Croesus called out Solon’s name he had him explain why. Croesus explained that Solon taught him how money does not equal happiness and that he had been wrong about Solon had said. Cyrus spared his life and learned from Croesus folly.
Conditions for good life
- Balance
- Social networks/ valuable relationships
- Pleasure vs. Happiness
Rich vs. blessed
Not about wealth but health, luck, and family.
Bhagavad Gita
Account of the conversation b/w Prince Arjuna, son of pandu, and Lord Krishna. Setting: before the Kurukshetra war. Arjuna is reluctant to fight against his teachers and relatives. Arjuna seeks guidance from Krishna. Their conversations reported to Dhritara.
Arjuna
Arjuna is one of the heroes of the massive Indian epic named “The Mahabharata”, the longest Indian epic. He is the third of the five Pandava brothers, officially the son of king Pandu and his two wives Kunti (who is also known as Pritha) and Madri
Krishna
a deity or deified hero of later Hinduism worshiped as an incarnation of Vishnu.
Five reasons to fight
- Since Atman is eternal, the self is never actually killed.
- The duty and honor of a warrior demands it.
- Inaction is impossible- be purposeful
- Passion/ desire are the source of evil, not actions themselves.
- There are ways of acting that don’t result in bad dharma, and these are the three disciplines (yogas).
David Foster Wallace
Committed fiction,individuals longing. Speech: This is water?- commencement speech. You are not the center of the universe and think of others. Argues against “unconsciousness, the default setting,the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing”. Default setting= just focusing on yourself and thinking you are the center of the universe. The important point of the fish story is that most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about… The fact that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance. “The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
This is water.This is water”.
What is empathy?
- Being compassionate of others
- The handsomest drowned man built environment.
- Antigone empathy towards brother but not sister or finance.
Randy Paush
Was an american professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Taught the last lecture about chasing your childhood dreams.
Free will
Determinism. Born in particular setting but what will you do with it. What you choose to do is important.
