Zeraph

Try to answer these questions without thinking about the consequences of an afterlife.

What type of life is worth living? When all is said and done, what will have been worth doing? Is it truth we should seek, following an argument, like Socrates, no matter what the outcome? Seek Harmony? Plain ol' happiness? Virtue, wisdom? Social connections? Money/materials?

Do you follow a set of standards? The 4 noble truths? The 10 commandments? Your own set?

Can you lead a happy life with poor morals?

These are very difficult questions to answer. Right now I am still finding myself and give importance to the first set of ways to live (harmony, truth, wisdom, virtue, happiness.) I think wisdom, or truth, above all else (most likely...) 30 years from now if I'm still alive I think truth/wisdom will have gotten me the most out of life and virtue will get me through it.

For virtue I think it is important to have a job that does no possible evil. Which would be arms dealing, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and other possible morally questionable products like scams, taking advantage of others, shoddy products, etc.

So far I'm following my own standards, with help from the great philosophers, but it is a work in progress, and have to think over a new set each time something comes up.

Ultimately, I don't think one can lead a happy life with poor morals. Short term maybe, but it would be a lower form of happiness, which brings to question what is real happiness if you don't know any better. Can we "tell"?

Please let your ideas flow, and don't feel you need to answer every question like a list.

asaris

I try to live my life as a flourishing person would. Eudaimonia baby! An awful lot of my moral guidance comes from Plato and Aristotle, especially Aristotle's idea that the virtuous action in a given situation is what a virtuous person would do. So I try to think about what the one or two virtuous people I know would do in that situation. I also occasionally make sure of the maxim I've gleaned from Nietzsche, "Always act out of strength, and never out of weakness."

To answer one more of your questions, I don't think you can live a happy life if it's not a moral life. We all have something like a 'nature', and however you want to describe what that means, it means that certain sorts of life won't ever make us happy. It's possible, I suppose, to get oneself rid of the guilt feelings one might well have from being brought up properly, but I suspect that that would have other consequences for one's happiness.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Toaster126

I think the point of life is to be happy and better ourselves.

I follow a generally Judeo-Christian set of morality.

I believe it is possible to live a life without a moral code and be happy. And I don't think proponents of either side of that issue can judge if someone else is truely happy to their full potential or not.

I found those very easy to answer.

__________________
"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

Zeraph

Ah but what is bettering ourselves? That is a loaded word that you chose not to explain. And why do you think we could live without a moral code and be happy?

Elaborating those two points, if you so choose, would be a little harder and take a little longer to explain.

shesus

I think that everyone has morals although some may be seen as bad morals to others. For example, a stripper has morals, but they are very different from a Christian. Does this make one wrong? I don't think so. People are different and that's what makes this world so interesting. What it boils down to is that you have to be happy with yourself and your choices. If you are dislike your choices and have regrets, I don't believe you can be happy. If a person sets their morals that match their choices or make choices matching their morals, then happiness will occur.

Morals can change, sometimes drastically. Born again christians and falling from grace are examples. If a person accepts their choices made in the past, the happiness should not suffer. Regret is only when someone did something that they feel guilty for doing. If the action followed the moral no regret should be felt.

If you live to please yourself and do what makes you happy, happiness should be present. This is how I live and basically I follow a few morals or values:

1) Choose your choice
2) Do unto others...
3) If you aren't happy, do something to change it

__________________
Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

onodrim

I think it's very worthwhile to explore various different philosophies on how to live a "good" life. A lot of insight can be learned and gained from them. But when it comes down to it, there is one very basic principle that I try to live by: to treat everyone with equality, respect, and ultimately love. That is my guiding principle in terms of how I would like to live my life.

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"The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides"
-Carl Sagan

Slippery Slope

There are some who are obviously 'happy' having bad morals but
their happiness is usually short lived. The 'most' happy among us
live our lives using common sense...by being 'good'. We don't have
to think about how to be good it just comes naturally/instinctively.

asaris

I tend to think about morals like I think about art. There is disagreement about what good morals are, just like there's disagreement about what good art is (and I'm speaking about specific examples, tokens if you will rather than types). It's possible to discuss rationally what good morals are, just like it's possible to discuss what is good art. And I think there's some objective truth to the matter in both cases, though it's often hard enough to discern that we ought to approach our own judgments with a heavy dose of humility.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Felicity

I think benevolence in all things is a good code to live by. The trouble lies in garnering the wisdom to know what is the truly benevolent way.

Daoust

"Good" is such a loaded term... Good to one person can mean vile, perverted, disgusting and wasteful to another....

Too bad we couldn't agree on what 'good' is...

Me I follow a set of guidelines that tell me what the difference is between good and evil. I try, (emphasise that) to follow that which I believe is good, and yes it's a Christian model, and there's nothing wrong with that...

I believe in good and I believe in evil. I believe in consequences for not doing good.
I don't believe in good as a fluid term. I believe there is a definition of good, and it's not "whatever you think it means"

__________________
I have faith in a few things - divinity and grace
But even when I'm on my knees I know the devil preys