The good life in a technological world: Focal things and practices in the West and in Japan

Uneasily situated between counterculture images projected by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and the dawning of the “Age of Aquarius” a decade later, there emerged a motion picture interlude of innocence on the beaches of Southern California. It was fostered by Gidget (1959) and then thirty “surf and sex” movies that focused on young, attractive bodies and beach escapades rather than serious social causes.The films, argues Kirse May, “created an ideal teenage existence, marked by consumption, leisure, and little else.” Stephen Tropiano explains how their popularity helped shape “the archetypal image of the American teenager” and, reinforced by the surfin' sounds of Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, and other recording groups, “turned America's attention to the Southern California coastline,” where “those who never set foot on its sandy shores were led to believe that life on the West Coast was a twenty-four-hour beach party.” This study examines a notable film of this genre to determine how musclemen were exploited to exhibit this playful spirit and how their negative reception reinforced an existing disregard toward physical culture. Muscle Beach Party illustrates how physical culture served other agendas, namely the need to address American fears of juvenile delinquency and to revive sagging box-office receipts within the guise of the “good life” of California.

Download Full-text

THE IDEA OF THE GOOD LIFE IN ARISTOTLE AND CONFUCIUS

Jurnal Sosialisasi: Jurnal Hasil Pemikiran, Penelitian dan Pengembangan Keilmuan Sosiologi Pendidikan ◽

10.26858/sosialisasi.v0i1.14529 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 61

Author(s):

John Gabriel Mendie ◽

Stephen Nwanaokuo Udofia

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Good Life ◽

The Good Life ◽

The West ◽

Happy Life ◽

Material Things

Man, by nature, desires to live a good and happy life. But often times, the enduring quest for the blissful and delightful, eludes man. This constant questing and concurrent yearning make man restless, until his hopes and aspirations of the good or happy life, are crowned with an éclat. But, can man ever attain or realize this feat in the society? Is the idea of the good life, a mirage, a myth or reality? Even more seriously, what does the good life really entail? Is it predicated on material things, that is, on the mundane? Or is the good life, a kind of utopia, an ideal that seeks to bring to the glare of publicity, the “oughts” of life as the case may be? Since the idea of the good life is something well-defined, does it also imply that there is such a thing as the bad life? If, such exist, what would it consist of? Armed with these cogitations, this paper, attempts an expository-comparative study of the good life, its constitutive elements and its attainability in the thoughts of two distinguished philosophers: Confucius (in the East) and Aristotle (in the West).

Download Full-text

Health, Wealth or Wisdom? Religion and the Paradox of Prosperity

International Journal of Public Theology ◽

10.1163/156973209x387280 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 5-23

Author(s):

Elaine Graham

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Public Policy ◽

Good Life ◽

Well Being ◽

The Good Life ◽

Human Flourishing ◽

The West ◽

Contributory Factors ◽

Vexed Question

AbstractThe so-called 'happiness hypothesis', associated with the work of the economist Richard Layard, has attracted much public debate over recent years. Its main contention is that despite rising levels of material prosperity in the west, incidence of recorded happiness and greater quality of life has not increased accordingly. In considering the major contributory factors to happiness and well-being, however, Layard is not alone in identifying the significance of religious values and participation in religion for positive and enduring levels of happiness. In response, this article critiques some of the evidence correlating religion and well-being, as well as considering the broader and much more vexed question of how far public policy is capable of incorporating questions of belief and value into its indicators of happiness and the good life. Drawing on traditions of virtue ethics as the cultivation of 'the life well-lived', I ask whether specifically Christian accounts of human flourishing and the good life still have any bearing in the wider public domain, and what 'rules of engagement' might need to be articulated in any dialogue between Christian values and the discourse of theology and a pluralist society.

Download Full-text

Shared Virtue: The Convergence of Valued Human Strengths across Culture and History

Review of General Psychology ◽

10.1037/1089-2680.9.3.203 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 203-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 246

Author(s):

Katherine Dahlsgaard ◽

Christopher Peterson ◽

Martin E. P. Seligman

Keyword(s):

Positive Psychology ◽

South Asia ◽

Good Life ◽

Moral Behavior ◽

The Good Life ◽

The West ◽

Religious Traditions ◽

Positive Traits

Positive psychology needs an agreed-upon way of classifying positive traits as a backbone for research, diagnosis, and intervention. As a 1st step toward classification, the authors examined philosophical and religious traditions in China (Confucianism and Taoism), South Asia (Buddhism and Hinduism), and the West (Athenian philosophy, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) for the answers each provided to questions of moral behavior and the good life. The authors found that 6 core virtues recurred in these writings: courage, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence. This convergence suggests a nonarbitrary foundation for the classification of human strengths and virtues.

Download Full-text