#weekfivethoughts

The MacIntyre reading was a heavy one, but after sifting through a lot of notable quotes that could be expounded on, my favourite was on page 310, when the author was talking about the provisional conclusion of the ‘good life’. A portion of the quote reads “the good life for man is the life spent in seeking the good life for man…”. Rephrased, in order to have lived a good life, you must live with the purpose and intent of pursuing what you as an individual deem to be a good life. By living purposefully and seeking fulfilment, a person can achieve a good life through what they experience in their journey. Stoicism really accentuates the importance of the self, and the absence of self at the same time. Someone who subscribes to these beliefs understands that it takes a deep understanding of the self in order to allow yourself to forget it. To not let yourself be governed by your emotions is to understand and nurture them while also exercising your power over them in a non-destructive manner. The philosophy of stoicism is often misconstrued as a complete lack of empathy or emotional intelligence, but this could not be further from the truth.