Posted: June 3rd, 2014

"The Good" in life

“The Good” in life

Paper instructions:

“The Good” in life, as defined first by the ancient Greeks, is the final or ultimate end at which our actions aim. It’s the answer to the question why you do what you do. For Epicurus, as we’ve seen, it was pleasure, though his explanation is much more complicated than might first come to mind. One is successful when this end is accomplished (adding perhaps the qualification “to the highest degree possible” or “to a reasonable degree”).

Another description is one’s “philosophy of life.” Typically when someone asks the question “What’s your philosophy of life?” I suspect the questioner himself doesn’t quite understand what he is asking. The question might mean “What sense do you make of the way the world is, or what’s the purpose of it all?”; or “How do you deal with the tribulations of life?”; or “Why have you chosen to live in the way you do?” The last interpretation is another way of asking “What’s the Good in life?”

As I wrote in the introduction to this Unit, unless one knows where one is aiming (and perhaps why as well) it’s very unlikely one will happen to hit the mark. Your assignment: what will be “the Good” in your life? What is the end or goal, for the sake of which you act as you do? Once you have a preliminary answer, ask yourself what problems might there be with your answer. For example, suppose you choose “wealth” as your goal. I imagine few people truly hold wealth as the final goal. Instead, they want certain goods that wealth usually brings: security, prestige, comfort, and so forth. Please use the ‘Final essay checklist’ in Week 5 to make sure your paper contains all it should.
Your essay should be a minimum of 5-6 pages of content (do not count the title page or reference pages) using APA format. It should include appropriate references to all the required readings for this course and may also include references from other relevant readings and videos viewed for this course. Note: If you paraphrase or quote from a non-Sandel video used in this course, for purposes of this paper ONLY, you may cite in-text as (Video title, 2011). For the end-of-paper reference you may cite it as:
Brigham, Mary (2011) video title, Siena Heights University, MI.

To cite the Michael Sandel Youtube video, cite it like this:
Harvard University, 2011, Michael Sandel’s “Justice” Episode 8, (video file) retreived from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcL66zx_6No&feature=related

If it’s been a while since you have formatted a paper in APA style, see the APA tab in “A Writer’s Resource”. Make sure your references are cited in-text and you have properly formatted references on the reference page at the end of the paper.
If it’s been a while since you have formatted a paper in APA style, see the APA tab in “A Writer’s Resource”. Make sure your references are cited in-text and you have properly formatted references on the reference page at the end of the paper.

Use this checklist to make sure you have everything in your final paper you need in order to get full credit.

___My thesis is underlined
___I clearly describe what I find or hope to find as ‘The Good in Life’ (My personal philosophy can be included)
___References to Windstrom’s lectures
___References to Michael Sandel’s lecture
___References to Affluenza and related course content
___References to the Most Human Art and its tie-in with the movie I chose to watch
___Tolstoy’s search for meaning in life
___Consolations of Philosophy…at least three different sections of the book that were meaningful to you
___Any additional course content that fits in with my theme is included

___I used APA format for my paper with 1″ margins and size 12 easy to read font
___All references were cited in-text and at the end of the paper in APA format
___If I directly quoted a source I included a paragraph or p.# in the in-text citation (Smith, 2012, para. 4) for instance
___My movie is properly cited (See ‘how to cite a movie’ in doc shaing)
___My paper is at least 5-6 pages double spaced (no extra spaces between paragraphs!) not counting cover sheet and reference page
___I have a cover sheet and my name is on it!
___When Mary reads my paper she will know I spent a lot of time on course content (after all, this is your ‘final exam’ for the course).
___I emailed an attached copy of my paper to MYSELF (you, the student) after I submitted it, so that if it gets lost in cyberspace I have a backup I can forward to Mary and still get credit. I understand that failure to do this could result in my final paper not counting and that would be such a bummer!
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