Is Aspiring To Be Good, Enough?

Is aspiring to be good, enough?

I’ve been pondering this question for a while now…

Do we even have any reason to be good in today’s society?

Why is it so hard to be a good person with integrity and morality?

Maybe because there’s no incentive to be good anymore, most of successful people you see, used a unethical or an immoral way to achieve their success.

If you’re too good or too kind? People exploit you.

So we know modern society idolizes being good, but in reality it makes nearly impossible for your to be good and live a fulfilling life.

Teleology

Take your kitchen knife, you might ask yourself why a knifes takes the form and feature that it does. If you’re too literal and go back to the making process the answer is a rather casual (etiological) explanation. The teleological lens would tell us “It’s purpose is to cut”, then you’d ask yourself. “But what makes a good knife?”. The answer to that would be “ A knife that cuts well”.

Knowing and focusing on the purpose, that allows knife makers to make confident decisions in the smithing process, and they know a knife is good even if they never used it.

This might seem like an abstract concept but teleology goes back to the ancient Greeks, originally an idea of Plato and then Aristotle.

The meaning? Telos is “end, purpose or goal” and logos means “explanation or reason”.

Why People Are What They Are & Do What They Do?

Aristotle pushed human teleology in the concept of Eudaimonia (flourishing). He was convinced that self-mastery was the goal or purpose of each person, and we must all strive towards this “life well-lived”.

How we can do that you ask? By living in moderation and according to moral virtues.

What Makes A Good Person?

Simply looking through the teleological lens doesn’t make us ethical. If you wish to be ethical you should make sure your purpose itself is good.

Something intrinsically good i.e justice, security, health, happiness instead of means to ends i.e profit, personal gain.

Teleology can be applied to your personal life & business to make informed decisions and act accordingly.

Think about what purpose you’re trying to achieve instead of thinking about consequences of your actions.

Eudaimonia & Self-Mastery

How would you define happiness?

If you could ask Aristotle himself what is happiness, here’s what he’d say:

Eudaimonia is one of the oldest definitions of happiness, and it has stood the test of times.

We got a first glimpse of Eudaimonia in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, his work on the “science of happiness”, he doesn’t determine what happiness is but rather what it isn’t.

There are so many ways to translate it to English, that I feel the need to go into etymology to provide further context.

Eu means good or well and daimon which means spirit or soul.

For Socrates virtues were required for us humans to achieve the ‘ultimate good’. Plato believed that individuals naturally feel unhappiness when they do something they know and acknowledge to be wrong, and Eudaimonia was the highest aim of both moral thought and behavior.

We can draw a parallel between the concept of Eudaimonia and the Maslow hierarchy of needs as self-actualization sits at the top of the pyramid.

For ancient scholars & modern scientists, self-mastery it’s seen as the climax of human existence, but we can all agree that modern society actually works against that.

You’re born, you go to school, you go to university, you find a average job with an average wage and you live an average life contributing to the system only to retire at 65, when you have time but no health to pursue your purpose and defend your values.

Self-actualization is idolized, put on a pedestal, but society is rigged so that only a few actually get to taste it, not only that but the simple love for others is dead.

Maybe because we live in humped spaces just being crushed one against another, human relationships have in a way lost it’s value with so much options and variety charging at us 24/7.

Agape & Community

A life filled with purpose, values, is meaningless if we have no one to share it with. No one to tell stories, no one to share a meal, share the ups and downs.

Ever wondered why you feel so good when helping someone?

Agape also from Ancient Greek (dude’s were busy in ancient times), is the highest form of love and charity, and it transcends philia (brotherly love), or philautia (self-love), as it is a profoundly sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance.

Also a concept that is deeply understood by ancient scholars & modern scientists but deeply ignored by modern society. Ever wondered why nurses, cops, firefighters do what they do for a ridiculously low wage? Because the feeling of sincerely helping someone in need is one of the most rewarding feelings in life, that show a lot about human nature, doesn’t it?

Modern society pushes us to be egoists, individualists, and directs to somewhere further and further away from what actually bring us happiness.

Ikigai & Balance

Every young person probably has seen the diagram or heard the word somewhere.

But what does it mean, really?

Literally?

• Something to live for

• The joy and goal of living

• A life worth living

Ikigai is a philosophy deeply embedded in Japan’s culture, embodying a way of life to be embraced instinctively, without ostentatious displays of pride or self-aggrandizement. It is all about finding joy in life.

Ikigai is about finding balance between:

• What you love.

• What you’re good at

• What you deserve to be paid for

• What the world needs

The Happiness Equation

Now that you’re familiarized with Eudaimonia, agape and the Ikigai, can you see how all of them branch into each other painting a beautiful picture about the purpose of human existence.

Ikigai is about living a life worth living, without Eudaimonia (flourishing and self-mastery) & Agape it is not possible.

Find your purpose, find people to walk by your side & live a life you can be proud of.

Cause at the end of the day, that’s all we have.

Is Aspiring To Be Good Enough?

It's a question that has no easy answers, as the environment is often filled with traps with the purpose of making you stray from your path.

Teleology helped me understand the importance of purpose and having intention in my actions. Eudaimonia illuminated the path to self-mastery. Agape proved to me that a solitary life is not worth living, cause love is what bind us all. In the heart of it all lies Ikigai, encapsulating the joy of life.

In a world that often pushes us towards individualism and egoism, let us remember the profound rewards of self-mastery and selflessness.

We have but one chance at this game of life. Why not strive for our best, every single day?

- Fred S.

P.S- I appreciate you going through this, I hope my POV can help you through your journey.

If you enjoyed the read, share with your friends and family as there’s not a single human that would not benefit from these ideas.

Peace.