What Matters In Life?
There has been a continuous search and debate by philosophers over many centuries for what really matters in life; for the purpose of life; for the highest good in life and hence, its goal or calling. It is a personal issue and it is a social issue as well. Whatever you decide to do with your life affects us all in some way or other. A brief summary of some of the ideas of the great thinkers of the ages is given in the table below:
| Philosopher | Period | The Greatest Good In Life |
| Heraclitus | 535-475 B.C. |
Harmony |
| Democritus | 460-370 B.C. |
Happiness and balance |
| Sophists | 600-400 B.C. ? |
Individual freedom, by any means necessary |
| Socrates | 469-399 B.C. |
Knowledge |
| Plato | 427-347 B.C. |
Reason |
| Aristotle | 384-322 B.C. |
Self realization |
| Epicurus | 342-270 B.C. |
Pleasure |
| Stoics | 500-300 B.C. ? |
Harmony |
| Philo | 20-50 B.C. |
God; perfect purity |
| St. Agustine | 354-430 B.C. |
Union with God |
| Thomas Aquinas | 1227-1274 |
Realization of self as God ordained |
| Meister Eckhart | 1260-1327 |
Union with God; one |
| Christianity | 0-1997 |
God is good |
| Eastern religions | 450 B.C. - 1997 |
God of good and God of Evil (duality) |
| Thomas Hobbes | 1588-1679 |
Relative (no absolute good or evil) |
| Descartes | 1596-1650 |
God is perfect |
| Spinoza | 1632-1677 |
Self preservation and intellectual love of God |
| John Locke | 1632-1704 |
Enlightened self interest |
| Richard Cumberland | 1631-1718 |
Welfare of the group, society |
| Lord Shaftesbury | 1671-1713 |
Welfare of self and group |
| Francis Hutcheson | 1694-1746 |
Greatest good for the greatest number |
| Leibnitz | 1646-1716 |
Innate principles in the human soul |
| Kant | 1724-1804 |
Discover the meaning of right and wrong; good and evil |
| Rousseau | 1712-1778 |
Human will; moral law and duty |
| Fichte | 1762-1814 |
Know what is right and do it because it is right |
| Schopenhauer | 1788-1860 |
Sympathy and pity |
| Mill | 1806-1873 |
Greatest good for the greatest number ("utilitarian") |
| Bentham | 1748-1832 |
Greatest good for the greatest number |
| Spencer | 1820-1903 |
Scientific basis of right and wrong ("absolute right produces immediate pleasure; relative right produces future happiness; the goal is absolute right") |
| Dewey & James | 1859-1952 1842-1910 |
Good serves the ends of the group and the individual and is relative ("food for a sick man may be poison") |
| Gandhi | 1869-1948 |
Nonviolence |
| Martin Luther King | 1929-1968 |
Love |