Assignment task:
The goal of life:
Obviously, people want a healthy maturity, including common sense, some enjoyable fellowship, and perhaps some success in their work. But these are more like prerequisites for happiness than ideals of perfection. Moreover, our democratic age encourages tolerance toward diversity and the right of individuals to choose their lifestyle. But that may not mean that all lives are equally ideal. Some seem better than others as far as ethical maturity goes.
Given the various elements of a happy life and the democratic embrace of diversity, must we give up the idea of an ideal life? Is there some way of redeeming the idea the some lives seem to represent human perfection more than others? To link it to Aristotle's emphasis on virtue, is there a most admirable (i.e., ideally virtuous) form of life?