The Good Life

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Nicomachean Ethics and
Modern Concepts
 Aristotle stated:

 All human activities aim at some good. Every art and

human inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is
thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the
good has been rightly declared as that at which all things
aim (Nichomachean Ethics 2:2)

 Everyone is moving towards the good.

 The good life however is more than these countless

expressions of what is good.

 It is characterized by happiness that springs from living

and doing well.
Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc
Nicomachean Ethics and
Modern Concept
 The ancient Greeks called this concept of “living well
and doing well” as eudaimonia.

 From Greek word eu meaning “good”and daimon

meaning “spirit”

 Taken together, it generally refers to the good life, which is

marked by happiness and excellence.

 It is a flourishing life filled with meaningful endeavors that

empower the human person to be the best version of
himself/herself.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Nicomachean Ethics and
Modern Concept
 According to Aristotle, happiness is the ultimate end of
human action.

 It is that which people pursue for its own sake.

 Happiness defines a good life.

 It is that which comes from living a life of virtue, a life of

excellence, manifested from the personal to the global
scale.

 It is the activities that express virtue that control happiness,

and the contrary activities that control its contrary
(Nicomachean 1:10)

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Nicomachean Ethics and
Modern Concept
 The good life is marked by happiness brought about by
virtuous human actions and decisions that affect the
individual self and the greater community.

 It is characterized by a life of flourishing of oneself and of

others.

 Disregard for virtuous actions, especially for the sake of

convenience and gratification, does not contribute to
happiness.

 Virtuous actions require discipline and practice.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Nicomachean Ethics and
Modern Concept
 Virtue is the excellence of character that empowers
one to do and be good.

 Such virtue is cultivated with habit and discipline as it is not

a one-time deed, but a constant and consistent series of
actions.

 Virtue, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral,

intellectual virtue in the main owes its birth and growth to
teaching (for which reason it requires experience and
time), while moral virtue come about as a result of habit
(Nicomachean Ethics 2:1)

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Nicomachean Ethics and
Modern Concept
 The onward progress of science and technology is also
the movement towards the good life.

 Science and technology may also corrupt a person,

but grounding oneself in virtue will help him/her steer
clear of danger.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

 Akira Kurosawa dreams of a sustainable, happy world

to live in; he calls this world Village of the Watermills.

 This short film is the last in Kurosawa’s collection of eight

shorts called ‘Dreams’.

 All eight films are actual dreams that Kurosawa had at

different points in his life.

 The final dream appears to be a happy ending that

leaves the audience with a ray of hope for the future.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

 Sunshine Through the Rain

 The boy sneaks out and goes into the forest, where he
stumbles upon a wedding procession.
 The boy is asked to seek forgiveness or kill himself

 The Peach Orchard

 Cutting the peach trees for the Doll festival

 The Blizzard
 A group of mountaineers becomes trapped in a blizzard on
the way back to camp. One by one, all the men sink into the
snow, giving in to certain death.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

 The Tunnel

 A man wearing a military travel coat walks on a paved

road towards a large and dark tunnel.
 He sees his platoon marching and saluting him as their
commander.

 Crows
 “A scene that looks like a painting does not make a
painting. If you take the time and look closely, all of nature
has its own beauty. When that natural beauty is there, I
just lose myself in it. And then, as if in a dream, the scene
just paints itself for me.”

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
 Mt. Fuji in Red

 a nuclear plant near Mount Fuji has erupted, radiation is

filtering into the air, and death is certain

 As clouds of radiation descend upon them, the businessman

leaps into the water, and Kurosawa tries to shield the woman
and her children with his jacket.

 The Weeping Demon

 A man stumbles upon a weeping horned demon, who reveals

that he used to be a man before a nuclear holocaust
ravaged the land.

 He explains that these were once millionaires and government

officials, who are now (according to the Buddhist tradition)
trapped in hell because of their sins towards mankind.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
 The Village of the Watermills

 A man walks into a sun-drenched country village.

 A wise old man who claims to be over a hundred years old

explains how his village has avoided modern technologies in
favor of a simple way of life.

 the wise man tells him that man has become addicted to
convenience
 Convenience leads to laziness, anxiety, and a disconnect with the
natural world.
 The village doesn’t need tractors to work the paddy fields because
they have cows and oxen, and it doesn’t need electricity because
they have candles and linseed oil.
 The wise man separates from the man to join the procession,
commenting, “Some people say life is hard to live. That’s justC. talk.
Ginalyn Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc
The Concept of Public
Good
 The communities, or the communal people, will
perceive a national public good as a communal public
good.

 Which is of national significance: to preserve a communal

heritage as part of the national heritage or to sacrifice it
for the general good in the pursuit of modernization and
globalization

 We must clearly distinguish between the national public

good as pursued by the national public on their own
initiative, with little or without the help of the local or
national government and the national public good as
pursued by the local or national government with the
support of the national public.
Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc
The Concept of Public
Good
 Public good from the politico-economic sense

 The economic concept of the public good pertains to the benefit

(profit) that may accrue an individual or a firm in pursuing a project
that will offset possible losses or adverse effects and that will likewise
benefit the general public, including possible external or free public
riders.

 Goods can be rivalrous and excludable (private goods), rivalrous

and nonexcludable (common pool resources), nonrivalrous and
excludable (club goods), and nonrivalrous and nonexcludable
(public goods).

 Rival good is something that can only be possessed or consumed by a

single user.
 Non-rival good can be consumed or possessed by multiple users.
 Non-excludable goods are public goods that cannot exclude a certain
individual or group of individuals from using them. Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc
The Concept of Public
Good
 Public public good
 Some public public goods are considered by the
government as basic or essential and necessary: national
security and defense, education, postal service, health
service, trade and industry, and the like, and certain
ministries or departments are created to address and
manage these public goods

 Private public goods

 are goods which the private sector sets up either by itself
or in participation with the government (local or national)
since the private sector sees their realization as profitable,
and the general public benefits from them as well either
as customers or as free riders.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

The Concept of Public
Good
 Mixed public goods

 are undertaken by some private organizations or civil

societies for the common good of the communal or
national public

 These are basically service-oriented.

 The public goods pursued are mixed in the sense that the
undertakers are private groups and yet they seek not
profits (unlike private firms) but service (like the
government).

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc

The Concept of Public
Good
 Public bads

 are negative goods which the general public scorns, and

in many cases, are avoided or not tolerated by both the
private and public sectors

 Some of these are corruption, pollution, crimes, and the

like.

Ginalyn C. Cuenca-Ocay, RN, MSc