Epictetus (c.55–c.135) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was probably born at Hierapolis, Phrygia, and lived most of his life in Rome until his exile to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece, where he died. The name given by his parents, if one was given, is not known - the word epiktetos in Greek simply means "acquired." Epictetus - Life. Epictetus spent his youth as a slave in Rome to Epaphroditos, a very wealthy freedman of Nero. Even as a slave, Epictetus used his time productively, studying Stoic P ...

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Epictetus - Life Epictetus - Philosophy

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Virtue ethics - Achieving eudaimonia Virtue ethics - Criticisms of virtue ethics Virtue ethics - Virtue ethics contrasted with deontology and consequentialism Virtue ethics - Historical origins Virtue ethics - Aristotle's theory of the virtues Virtue ethics - Virtues ethics outside the Western tradition Virtue ethics - Contemporary virtue ethics

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Purpose is deliberately thought-through goal-directedness. According to some philosophies, purpose is central to a good human life. Helen Keller wrote that happiness comes from "fidelity to a worthy purpose", and Ayn Rand wrote that purpose must be one of the three ruling values of human life (the others are reason and self-esteem). Some people think that God assigns purposes to people and that it is their mission to fulfill them. Others say that purpose is not inherent, but instead freely chosen (or not chosen) by individuals. ...

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The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. There are many components to well-being. A large part is standard of living, the amount of money and access to goods and services that a person has; these numbers are fairly easily measured. Others like freedom, happiness, art, environmental health, and innovation are far harder to measure. This has created an inevitable imbalance as programs and policies are created to fit the easily available economic numbers while ignoring the other me ...

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Quality of life - Measuring quality of life Quality of life - Application in politics Quality of life - New Zealand Quality of life - North America

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People are humans and persons that interact as a society. They have thoughts and emotions. They work, play and originate from Earth, while investigating the options of expanding into space. Philosophy attempts to investigate and reason the nature, behaviour and purpose of people. They often ask themselves where they come from and where are they going, or question the meaning of life. Philosopher Aristotle reasons in Nicomachean Ethics that people seek a highest good, eudaimonia, and their other actions, such as wanting good health, or to rec ...

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The Fellowship of Reason is a moral community based in Atlanta. Its founder, Martin L. Cowen III, calls himself a "non-theist", and says that although he does not believe in God or other things supernatural, he nonetheless thinks that churches serve a useful function by providing "moral communities." Wishing to have a moral community that is not theistic (although not officially opposed to theism) he founded that organization. Fell ...

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Fellowship of Reason - Six essential activities of the organization Fellowship of Reason - Links

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A correct definition of goodness would be valuable because it might allow one to construct a good life or society by reliable processes of deduction, elaboration or prioritisation. One could answer the ancient question, "How then should we live?", among many other important questions. Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property. One attempt to define goodness describes it as a property of the world. According to this perspective, to talk about a good is to talk about something with ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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The methods of virtue ethics are in contrast to the dominant methods in ethical philosophy, which focus on actions. For example, both Kantian and utilitarian systems try to provide guiding principles for actions that allow a person to decide how to behave in any given situation. Virtue ethics, by contrast, focuses on what makes a good person, rather than what makes a good action. As such it is often associated with a teleological ethic ...

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Virtue ethics, Virtue ethics - Achieving eudaimonia, Virtue ethics - Criticisms of virtue ethics, Virtue ethics - Virtue ethics contrasted with deontology and consequentialism, Virtue ethics - Historical origins, Virtue ethics - Aristotle's theory of the virtues, Virtue ethics - Virtues ethics outside the Western tradition, Virtue ethics - Contemporary virtue ethics

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Nicomachean Ethics - General Ethics. PP Nic.+Eth.1094a Aristotle's ethics is often called teleological or goal-directed. According to Aristotle, every thing has a purpose or end. A knife, for example, has the purpose of cutting things. A good knife is good at cutting things, and therefore knives should be sharp. Similarly, people have a purpose. People should do things that help them fulfill that purpose or end: things that are for their good. There are many actions, crafts, and scie ...

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Nicomachean Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics - Naming, Nicomachean Ethics - Overview, Nicomachean Ethics - General Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics - Virtue Arete: traditional Greek virtues, Nicomachean Ethics - Ethics within Society, Nicomachean Ethics - Important quotes

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The term has often been used, since the 1980s, in connection with the presence or absence of so-called victimless crimes, its users in this sense citing the incidence of these to gauge the inherent level of disorder in a society at a particular time. Users of the term in this application — who tend to be political and/or social conservatives — often refer to victimless crimes by the alternate name of "quality-of-life crimes." In conjunction with this, American sociologist James Q. Wilson has articulated what he calls the Broken Window ...

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Quality of life, Quality of life - Measuring quality of life, Quality of life - Application in politics, Quality of life - New Zealand, Quality of life - North America

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The most famous deontological theory was advanced by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. This theory held that particular kinds of acts are morally wrong because they are inconsistent with the status of a person as a free and rational being, and thus should not be carried out under any circumstances whatsoever. Conversely, acts that further the status of people as free and rational beings should always be carried out, under any circumstances whatsoever. A course of action ...

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Deontological ethics, Deontological ethics - Proponents of deontological ethics, Deontological ethics - Criticism of deontology, Deontological ethics - Specific Criticisms of Kant's Ethics, Deontological ethics - Universal oath-breaking, Deontological ethics - Eudaimonia assumed, Deontological ethics - Prudential vs. moral maxims

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Epictetus spent his youth as a slave in Rome to Epaphroditos, a very wealthy freedman of Nero. Even as a slave, Epictetus used his time productively, studying Stoic Philosophy under Musonius Rufus. He was eventually freed and lived a relatively hard life in ill health in Rome. It is known that he became crippled, owing to cruel treatment by his master, Epaphroditus, according to most reports. He was exiled along with other philosophers by the emperor Do ...

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Epictetus, Epictetus - Life, Epictetus - Philosophy

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Many utilitarian philosophers offer interesting critiques of deontology. Jeremy Bentham, an early utilitarian philosopher, criticized deontology on the grounds that it was essentially a dressed-up version of popular morality, and that the unchanging principles that deontologists attribute to natural law or universal reason are really a matter of subjective opinion. John Stuart Mill, who lived in 19th century Britain, argued that deontologists usually fail to specify which principles should take priority when rights and duties co ...

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Deontological ethics, Deontological ethics - Proponents of deontological ethics, Deontological ethics - Criticism of deontology, Deontological ethics - Specific Criticisms of Kant's Ethics, Deontological ethics - Universal oath-breaking, Deontological ethics - Eudaimonia assumed, Deontological ethics - Prudential vs. moral maxims

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The entire project of investigating the good is, to some skeptics, worrisome. For many skeptics, the investigation into the good is not a fruitful quest. The prospect of the investigation being successful, with goodness finally analysed, satisfactorily defined, and universally agreed, is unsettling for some people. They assert that perhaps the definition could be used in a totalitarian way, or perhaps the world would lose some of its ambiguity, or there may be a loss of diversity in society and in ways of life. So the fact that some e ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods. There is a difference between moral and natural goods. Moral goods are those that have to do with the conduct of persons, usually involving praise or blame. Natural goods, on the other hand, have to do with objects, not persons. For example, to say that "Mary's a morally good person" might have a different sense of good in the sentence "A banana split is good". Ethics tends to be more interested in moral goods than natural goods, and economics tends to be more interested in the reverse. However, both moral and natu ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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The measures often used in the study of health care are 'quality-adjusted life years' (QALYs) and the related 'disability-adjusted life years' (DALYs); both equal 1 for each year of full-health life, and less than 1 for various degrees of illness or disability. Thus the cost-effectiveness of a treatment can be assessed by the cost per QALY or DALY it produces; for example, a cancer treatment which costs $10,000 and on average gives the patient 2 extra years of full health costs $5000 per QALY. Assessing treatments in this way avoids the much ...

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Quality of life, Quality of life - Measuring quality of life, Quality of life - Application in politics, Quality of life - New Zealand, Quality of life - North America

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Values play an important part in everyday life; everyone has their own set of beliefs about what is and isn't good or valuable. This article also involves the philosophical and academic approach in the fields of ethics and aesthetics, in which these beliefs are not only carefully catalogued and described but also rigorously analyzed and judged. These descriptive and normative approaches are usually complementary. For example, tracking the acceptance of slavery across cultures ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism. Moral cognitivists assert that statements of value stand for beliefs that can be categorized as true or false. Consider the statement, "Athens, Greece is an older city than Athens, Georgia." Although one might quibble about continuity, the identity of a city over time, most people would probably say that this statement is meaningful and true. It is not, though, a statement of value, because there is no necessary connection between age and goodness, beauty, etc. Cons ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity. Jeremy Bentham's book The Principles of Morals and Legislation prioritized goods by considering pleasure, pain and consequences. This theory had a wide effect on public affairs, up to and including the present day. A similar system was later named Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. More broadly, utilitarian theories are examples of Consequentialism. All utilitarian theories are based upon the maxim of utility, which states that that whic ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values. There is a succession of things which can be considered as intrinsically good: from particular events of pleasure, to an individual's happiness, to an individual's eudaimonia, to the flourishing of a society, to the flourishing of an entire ecosystem. So it can be seen that there is a rather difficult problem about the scope of the theory of value. As a values pluralist, you might say: every item in this succession of items is i ...

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Goodness and value theory, Goodness and value theory - Descriptive Meta-Ethical and Normative fields, Goodness and value theory - Types of the good, Goodness and value theory - Moral natural and economic goods, Goodness and value theory - Intrinsic and instrumental goods, Goodness and value theory - Contributory intrinsic and inherent goods, Goodness and value theory - Kant: hypothetical and categorical goods, Goodness and value theory - Meta-ethical foundations, Goodness and value theory - Moral Cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Non-cognitivism, Goodness and value theory - Quasi-Absolutism, Goodness and value theory - Moral Nihilism, Goodness and value theory - Theories of the good, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as an objective property, Goodness and value theory - Goodness as subjective/evaluative, Goodness and value theory - Choice optimization theory, Goodness and value theory - Conceptual metaphor theorists, Goodness and value theory - Objects of the good, Goodness and value theory - The value of plenty and scarcity, Goodness and value theory - The value of fairness, Goodness and value theory - The value of labor, Goodness and value theory - The value of the old and the new, Goodness and value theory - Meta-Ethics and Inherent values, Goodness and value theory - Values pluralism and the grading of values, Goodness and value theory - Values monism and alternatives to hedonism, Goodness and value theory - Skeptical worries

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