What is a good life? A good life is the life that is worth living. We can be alive but not be living a worthy or good life. Examining our own life and whether it is moving towards a good life is perhaps the most important activity that we can possibly do. Our life depends upon it.
Succeeding in Life and Failing at a Life Worth Living
Albert Speer (1905-1981) succeeded in being a brilliant professional and a horrible human being—and so can we. Speer was incredibly bright and when Hitler offered him the chance to be the chief architect of the Third Reich. Such an influential opportunity is difficult to pass up and so he took and went on to build wondrously beautiful buildings.
He also participated in atrocious acts of violence and evil by using slave labor and facilitating the Holocaust. His singular devotion to architecture made him an excellent designer and craftsman also made him a bad human being. He succeeded in excellence and flunked at life. Although most of us will not be asked an equivalent question from a Hitler of our day, we can make the same colossal mistake.
The Fundamental Question
The story of Speer leads us to ask the most important question we can ever ask: is a life worth living? There are few questions that could be more important than this one. This can be asked in different ways like “what is the good life?”, “what is the life of flourishing?”, “what is the blessed life?”.
If we pursue these questions seriously, then they promise to challenge everything. And it will not come without a cost. And what is at stake is really everything, our life and leading it well. If this seems daunting and even overwhelming, then this suggests that we just get it—we actually understand what is at stake.
A Dumb Question without an Answer?
There is a problem though. When I introduce the idea of a life worth living I inevitably get some sort of response like this: “This question does not really have any constructive answer other than what people want. The good life is open to interpretation and we really can’t know. For example, take one response from Tim Farris in answering a very similar question of “what is the meaning of life?” in 4-Hour Work Week1:
“Consider the question of questions: What is the meaning of life? […] Until the question is clear—each term in it defined—there is no point in answering it. The ‘meaning’ of ‘life’ question is unanswerable without further elaboration.” (Ferriss, 269)
Non-Sensical and Unanswerable Questions
What are we to think? Given the potential obscurity of this question, are we to refrain from answering it? This is basically comparing the question of meaning and a life worth living to the non-sensical sentence, “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.” This sentence is grammatical but literally makes no sense.
Ferriss objects to the question on grounds that it is unclear. Detailing the question’s meaning is a worthwhile project. See {author meaning of life, dissertation, analytic question} for some great work in this area. See also my post on meaning of life. I think, however, that detailing the question’s terms often obscures a deeper concern: that there simply is no answer. That is, we understand what the question means, but think that there is no correct answer. That is, we think the question is more like:
“What is the best flavor of ice cream?”
Unlike the non-sensical sentence above, the question of the best ice cream is understandable and makes sense. We just think that there is no absolute answer to this question. The answer always depends upon the person being asked. Is the question of what life is most living like the ice cream question?
How to Begin Answering this Question
First, claiming that there is no answer to the question of a life most worth living is an answer. It is the view that the most important question of your life, how you should live you life, really has no significance beyond your current preferences. This may be right, of course, but in order to come to such a view of the worthy life (and dismiss the themes of the great philosophical and religious traditions) shouldn’t we at least explore it some? To simply assume this response without examining alternatives would be foolish. Too much is at stake.
Second, do we really think there is no life better than another? The story of Speer is instructive. Did he have a good life? If he did not, then this implies that there is some standard of a good life and that Speer did not meet it.
We do not act as if this question has no answer. We act, at least implicitly, that this question has an answer. How? Because we think that it matters. We attach immense weight about securing and achieving a certain sort of life. Our decisions, plans, hopes and desires aim us towards securing what we take to be the good life. And when this does not happen, when we inevitably encounter obstacles that prevent us from achieving and pursuing that good life, disappointed sets in.
What We Want
Well, you say, the disappointment that we feel is not because there is a way to answer the question of the good life. Rather, you say that the disappointment results from me not getting what we want. People should be able to get what they want but what they want is not up for judgment or evaluation. People can want whatever they want, there is not better and worse things that we want.
Think of Speer again. Did he live the best life he could have? No. By all accounts, he was getting what he wanted. Yet, this did not result in a good life, and this implies that what he wants matters. His obsession with being an architect led him to be an excellent architect and ultimately, a bad human being. There are better and worse lives because there are better and worse desires for our life.
OK, you say, perhaps there are some desires that are better and worse. The worse ones have this constraint on them: the worse one’s harm others and take away their ability to live a good life. Other than that, you can desire what you want. We just can’t desire to hurt others or prevent them from pursuing what they desire.
I think this is a very intuitive view but notice where we are now: there are better and worse lives. And we’ve given content to the evaluation of what counts as “better” and “worse”: not harming others or preventing them from pursuing what they desire. But then we must ask why is this evaluative standard preferred over others? Thus, we are ready to explore what makes life worth living. It behooves us to consider whether we have thought about this before and what is preventing us from thinking about it. There are few things that are more valuable than this.
You Need to Get Judgy
“Judge not lest you yourself be judged.” Our culture hates judgement, especially on important things. We are averse to pronouncing any sort of judgment on people’s lives or choices. But Speer’s example suggests that while we need to be cautious in our evaluations, we do and in fact need to judge our lives—there’s really nothing more important.
So, let’s get judgy. Some guided questions that we can begin to take stock of our lives and what we’re after in order that we might evaluate whether they are worthy of our pursuit, ask yourselves these questions (taken from Life Worth Living2):
- What events regularly pop up on your daily, weekly, and yearly schedules?
- How much time is unscheduled? What time do you give yourself to rest? Social connections? Spiritual practices?
- What do you splurge your money on?
- What’s the first thing you listen to or read when you wake? Before you sleep?
- What voices/opinions are most present to you?
Take some time to reflect on these important questions and do not rush it. The answers to these questions will act as guides as we look at what you’re living for and give you the tools to ask whether it is worth living.