Interesting post from the Harvard Business Review no less, on the life well lived, as distinguished from the opulent life. A bit of philosophical choir preaching, but interesting.
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2011/05/is_a ... l#comments
One favorite quote:
The key word is "better" — and where opulence asks, "Did you get the latest car, yacht, gold-plated razor — or are you just a loser?" eudaimonia asks, "Did any of that stuff make you meaningfully better — smarter, fitter, grittier, more empathic, wiser? Or are you just (yawn) a pawn in the tired, predictable game called 'the pursuit of diminishing returns to hyperconsumption': the game that's rigged by hedge-fund bots against you?"
Is a well lived life worth anything?
@Hoplite
Interesting link. Of course, his discussion of the progenitors of eudaimonia was disappointing for neglecting to at least mention Aristotle or the Stoics (for whom someone with your moniker might have a favorable view?). Perhaps he wished to avoid the morally challenging concept of "arete" (often translated as "virtue," but captured better by "excellence") because it suggests, contrary to his explicit reference to the Declaration of Independence as an eudaimonic source text, that all people are not in actuality equal. (Perhaps we are all "created" so, but we don't remain so for very long.) But the ancient Greeks understood that you cannot have eudaimonia without arete.
Jacob Lund Fisker could be added to his list of prophetic voices for the eudaimonia revolution with equal justice. And Jacob demonstrates that he gets the arete component.
Interesting link. Of course, his discussion of the progenitors of eudaimonia was disappointing for neglecting to at least mention Aristotle or the Stoics (for whom someone with your moniker might have a favorable view?). Perhaps he wished to avoid the morally challenging concept of "arete" (often translated as "virtue," but captured better by "excellence") because it suggests, contrary to his explicit reference to the Declaration of Independence as an eudaimonic source text, that all people are not in actuality equal. (Perhaps we are all "created" so, but we don't remain so for very long.) But the ancient Greeks understood that you cannot have eudaimonia without arete.
Jacob Lund Fisker could be added to his list of prophetic voices for the eudaimonia revolution with equal justice. And Jacob demonstrates that he gets the arete component.