Self-study
Every moral theory developed in the Western tradition purports to tell us what a good life is. ████████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ██ ██ ██████ █ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ █████████
Summary
Every Western moral theory tries to say what a good life is. Yet anyone who actually embodied the ideals of any of these theories would be judged by most people to not be living a good life. Most people would not want to live like them nor want their children to live like them.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Most people disagree with the moral theories’ conception of a good life. They think a good life is something else.
10.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Most people desire █ ████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████ █ ██████ ████ █████
We don’t know whether most people desire anything better than a good life. We only know that most people think that a good life is not what the moral theories say it is.
b
A person who ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ █████ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████████
We don’t know if the ideals of Western tradition moral theories are different from one another. It could be that the ideals across some (or even all) of these theories are the same. We only know that what most people believe is ideal is different from any moral theory of Western tradition.
c
Most people have █ ██████████ ██ █ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████
If most people believe that anyone who embodies any moral theory of Western tradition is not living a good life, then most people must believe that a good life entails something different than what any theory does.
d
A good life ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ██████ ██ █████████
We don’t know whether it’s impossible to live a good life as described by moral theories in the Western tradition. Rather, what is being debated is what a good life entails, not if it is possible to live a good life.
e
It is impossible ██ ███████ █ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ████ █ ████ ████ ███
We don’t know whether it’s impossible for a theory to describe a good life accurately. Just because most people disagree with these theories does not mean it’s impossible to accurately describe a good life. People can be mistaken.