Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 1

Free Powerpoint Templates

The good life: Our search for happiness

Ch. 7

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 2

The “good life” & happiness

“All people seek to be happy, even those who are about to hang themselves.”

-Blaise Pascal

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 3

Consider this from St. Augustine

We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no one who does not assent to this proposition.

• What did Augustine mean?

• Who was he talking about?

• Agree? / Disagree?• How would a

pessimist fit in?

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 4

In Small Groups

• create a list of the top ten things you need to do/know/have in order to live the good life.

• Rank them in order of importance.

• Present to the class

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 5

For further discussion1. What else would you add to the list if it was not going to be shared

with anyone?

2. Would people from another country / region of the world agree with the class suggestions for the good life? Why or why not?

3. What types of behaviour support the good life? What characteristics / values do we need in order to live the good life?

4. What do these lists say about what we value as a culture?

5. What is the connection between what we value and who we are?

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 6

The search to be happy

• Is behind every:– Vocation– Choice we make

• Comes out of deepest conviction that “happiness is our due.”

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 7

According to Christian Tradition

• We were created for happiness

• The desire for happiness is natural

–Placed by God in the human heart (CCC #1718)

Free Powerpoint TemplatesPage 8

All Ethical Theories• Ethics is in search of the Good

• Most ethical thinkers:

–The good life, i.e., the ethical, moral life is also the happy life

–In the good that we seek, we seek also our happiness