The Concept of ‘the Good Life’: Universal or Predefined?

• In Event: Transferring the ‘Good Life Approach’ Between Eastern and Western Europe: Challenges for Organizational Communication Research

Abstract

From a philosophical point of view, the good life approach is as old as mankind (Hanson-Baldauf, 2011) and goes back to Greek philosophy. In the 1980ies the good life was described as alternative in ethics (Porter, 1980) and discussed as basic concept of moral philosophy (Graham, 1990). Today, the relationship between the individual perception of the nature of good life and the social structure as well as the cultural context (Guignon, 1999; Lee, 2012) is increasingly recognized. Vice versa, organizations are confronted with the question: what is considered the ‘good’ and how far is the good life created and reproduced by the organization? Inner contradictions are foreseeable and have to be solved (Heintel & Krainer, 2010). The presentation shows the historical development and the context relation of ‘the good life’ as normative principle and focusses on the constructive role of communication for the perception of the good life.

Author

• Larissa Krainer, U of Klagenfurt