Free Powerpoint Templates Page 1 Free Powerpoint Templates The good life: Our search for happiness Ch. 7

Free Powerpoint Templates Page 2 The “good life” & happiness “All people seek to be happy, even those who are about to hang themselves.” -Blaise Pascal

Free Powerpoint Templates Page 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 Templates Page 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 Templates Page 5 For further discussion 1.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 Templates Page 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 Templates Page 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 Templates Page 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