Stoicism Flashcards
eudaimonia
the state or condition of ‘good spirit’; happiness; welfare
eudaimon life is a life which is objectively desirable, and means living well
Aristotle
(1) life of pleasure, (2) a life of political activity, and (3) a philosophical life.
Aristotle’s examples of a eudaimon life
the eudaimon life is one of “virtuous activity in accordance with reason”
Aristotle
the eudaimon life is the life of pleasure, maintains that the life of pleasure coincides with the life of virtue
Epicurus
eudaimonia means ‘doing and living well
Aristotle
This state of the soul, moral virtue, is the most important good.
Socrates
The health of the soul is incomparably more important for eudaimonia than (e.g.) wealth and political power. Someone with a virtuous soul is better off than someone who is wealthy and honored but whose soul is corrupted by unjust actions.
Socrates
Life is not worth living if the soul is ruined by wrongdoing.
Socrates
Justice (being just) hinders or prevents the achievement of eudaimonia because conventional morality requires that we control ourselves and hence live with un-satiated desires.
Plato
hedonism
the view that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and that pain is the only intrinsic bad.
Virtuous activity is not pursued for the sake of pleasure. Pleasure is a byproduct of virtuous action.
Aristotle
One should not literally aim for eudaimonia. Rather, eudaimonia is what we achieve (assuming that we aren’t particularly unfortunate in the possession of external goods) when we live according to the requirements of reason.
Aristotle
Il faut cultiver notre jardin
(One Must Cultivate One’s Own Garden)
meaning we must tend to our own affairs
The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning. And what you behold upon it are your wishes. There is no world apart from what you wish.
And what we hold in our minds translates into what we experience in the world. The world is nothing more than the result of a choice in our minds.
Voltaire in Candide
Il faut cultiver notre jardin
(One Must Cultivate One’s Own Garden)
Thus it is with our thoughts that we must work. That is what Voltaire meant by cultivating our garden. And like Candide, we can move beyond the blind faith of an outside world affecting us to the wondrous realization that the source of all happiness comes from within.
Voltaire in Candide