How Does a Good Life Feel? / Feelings and a Life Worth Living

How does a good life feel? Is it as obvious as, “good”? Many philosophies (like utilitarianism) are built on the idea that we should maximize good feelings as much as possible.

But it’s important to wrestle with the possibility that sometimes a good life might actually feel bad.

Lecturer at Yale College and Life Worth Living Co-Founder, Ryan McAnnally-Linz suggests a more nuanced approach to understanding the role of feelings in a good life, in this this chapter-by-chapter video curriculum series based on his bestselling book (with Matt Croasmun and Miroslav Volf), Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most.

Transcript

I’d like to pose a question with an obvious answer. The question is: How does a good life feel? The obvious answer is: Good. Probably as good as possible as much of the time as possible.

There are whole philosophies—varieties of what scholars call utilitarianism—built on this simple, intuitive idea. And yet, if we start to push on it, the obvious answer has some problems.

For one thing, “feeling good” might be too broad a category. It might brush over important differences between feelings.

Inner peace and tranquility sure feels like something different from ecstatic pleasure. And if they’re different, maybe one of these feelings is more important for a good life than the other. Maybe one even keeps us from finding what’s really worth wanting.

A number of religious and philosophical traditions have certainly thought so. Strange as it sounds, maybe some kinds of good feelings are actually bad.

‍For another thing, what if certain so-called negative feelings are actually an important part of the good life? Since there’s tragedy in the world, couldn’t it be appropriate or fitting, even *good*, to feel sorrow in response?

Again, serious thinkers—and whole streams of tradition—have held this view. You might wind up disagreeing, but it’s important to wrestle with the possibility that sometimes a good life feels bad.

It turns out that it’s not so obvious how a good life feels, which means you’ll need to grapple with the question and respond to it yourself.