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Single Idea 13302

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / b. Eudaimonia ]

Full Idea

As it is with a play, so it is with life - what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.

Gist of Idea

Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length

Source

Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 077)

Book Ref

Seneca: 'Letters from a Stoic (Selections)', ed/tr. Campbell,Robin [Penguin 1969], p.130

A Reaction

A very nice epigram, culminating the wonderful Letter 77 on the subject of death. A play needs to be a decent length if it is to exhibit its qualities. It would be heartbreaking if all of Shakespeare's plays were just 20-minute sketches.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [Greek concept of fulfilment/happiness/flourishing]:

1646 Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos]
14178 Happiness is secure enjoyment of what is good and beautiful [Plato]
18673 Eudaimonia is said to only have final value, where reason and virtue are also useful [Aristotle, by Orsi]
5127 Does Aristotle say eudaimonia is the aim, or that it ought to be? [McDowell on Aristotle]
5143 Some good and evil can happen to the dead, just as the living may be unaware of a disaster [Aristotle]
5996 Critolaus redefined Aristotle's moral aim as fulfilment instead of happiness [Critolaus, by White,SA]
13302 Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca]
5068 'Eudaimonia' means 'having a good demon', implying supreme good fortune [Taylor,R]
5120 What counts as 'flourishing' must be relative to various sets of values [Harman]
8005 'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well [MacIntyre]
21836 Philosophers after Aristotle endorsed the medical analogy for eudaimonia [Nussbaum, by Flanagan]
21835 We need Eudaimonics - the empirical study of how we should flourish [Flanagan]
20199 Nowadays we doubt the Greek view that the flourishing of individuals and communities are linked [Zagzebski]
4324 Animals and plants can 'flourish', but only rational beings can have eudaimonia [Hursthouse]
7099 With a broad concept of flourishing, it might be possible without the virtues [Statman]