How shall I attain my Eudaimonia?

I would like to voice my own personal opinions on the five different views of life provided, in order to provide a more complete response to this extremely challenging question.

Epicurus Happiness is achieved by being free from pain and anxiety. In his opinion, to achieve that, we require friends, freedom, and an analyzed life. I agree with Epicurus’ opinion on friends. Friends can bring about a lot of joy in our lives, and are who we usually turn to when we face troubles and setbacks. For me, I treasure friends a lot as I feel that they are extremely important in my life. That is why I always make it an effort to keep in touch with friends I have not met for a long time, like my primary school friends, and go back to our primary school together on public holidays. Moreover, I would also try my best to organise outings during school holidays, but I only had one successful one recently in June this year. Everyone had so much fun and the times we spent in our primary school all came back. As the Chinese saying goes, “在家靠父母，在外靠朋友。” Therefore, I agree that friends are extremely important since they can bring about happiness in our lives, and for a prolonged time as well. In terms of freedom, I feel that it is very subjective as many people have very different views of freedom. In my view, discipline should be existent as well, to achieve the Golden Mean, which I would speak on later. An analyzed life is important, but I have not experienced how it can bring about happiness, maybe just not yet.

Aristotle’s Ethics focuses on Eudaimonia, with the ultimate goal in living is to make life worth living. There are many parts to Aristotle’s Ethics, but I would only voice my opinion on one. An important part of Aristotle’s Ethics is to achieve the Golden Mean, which is the balance between the two extremes, the extreme of excess and the extreme of deficiency. I largely agree with Aristotle about the Golden Mean. It is extremely important to keep a balance. I would give an example which is more relevant to me. In my opinion, we should not be workaholics and miss out other wonderful things in life as well. However, we should not be lazy and not do anything at all. Therefore, in my opinion, in order to be happy, we should do our best to achieve the Golden Mean since balance is extremely important.

Deontologists, on the other hand, feel that we should fulfill moral duties and obligations regardless of the end results. We have to do things because we have to, and not because we like it. In my opinion, this should not be the way of life. If we lead such a life, we would be practising “sheep” thinking, since we are just doing things others are doing, and just for the sake of it. We would not be really thinking about what is the aim of the things we do. This way of living our lives would be very sorrowful and meaningless as we would be forced to do many things. Therefore, I do not support the deontologists’ point of view.

Buddhism focuses on “being more” than having more. I feel that such a way of thinking is indeed very proper. It is important to continuously improve ourselves in every aspect, rather than pursuing material gains. However, I feel that friends and family are extremely important as well.

Christianity believes that we should not rely on earthly things to get our happiness, and rather, to pursue permanent happiness, which is to get closer to God. As a Christian, I believe so too. Getting close to God is a happy thing as God is Love.

In conclusion, I would require friends, the Golden Mean, constant improvement of my character and intellect as well as God’s love to reach my Eudaimonia.

(Adapted from my AAT Journal)