Have a good life...

Would you consider a human being someone living in an empty planet, with no company but himself? Is that person a human being if he doesn't have someone to talk to, to share ideas, feeligns or thoughts?

Being a human being means being in contact with other people, with whom you socialise and communicate. There's no person without interaction with others.

You can have a good life as long as you remember you are free to choose what you want from your life... because it is yours to live!! Yes, it is true that you can listen to suggestions or follow someone else's orders... but it is your decision either way!

Deciding what we actually want is the tricky part of the issue... specially when you are not completely sure of what you want.

So, choose to live a good life!! Whatever you decide will take wherever you choose...

Just remember that part of living a good human life is being part of a society, sometimes with cultural traditions and using a language that helps us express whatever we want.

Do what you want!

We are free to decide whether we follow someone else's orders, our surrounding customs or our desires.. But sometimes this is dificult as they do not satisty us. What is important is to be aware of what we decide and why we decide it.

Do we follow orders without stopping to think if they are convenient for us or not? Are all orders or customs good for us? Or could they be immoral as well? Not only behaviours can be good or bad, moral or immoral... People can also be so. However , there's no manual to learn how to be a good human being... Therefore, we have to learn by being human beings, sometimes by trial and error... We are not an instrument to reach and end, but our intentions are the reasons we do things.

While we learn, at school and in the school of life, we follow our beliefs and criteria to be ourselves immersed in a society...

So... do what you want!! As long as your free will and freedom of choice does not go agaisnt someone else's...

Freedom

Human beings have the capacity to choose. To choose what to do , when to do it and how to do it, among many other options. Unlike animals, plants and other live organisms, human beings have freedom of choice.

People can choose to learn certain things and not others according to their interests. However, there are certain matters that we are compelled to know, such as differentiating what is "good" and what is "bad" for us. We know eating healthily is good for us and that abusing drugs is not. (though some people may think differently, it's their choice)

Unlike other living creatures, humans are free to choose how to live their lives. People not necessarily have to do things as we can choose if we want to do them or not. We are "programmed" by genetics but also by the society and culture in which we grow up. These shape us in ways that allow us to be able to decide what, when, how and why to do or not certain things.

We are free to choose how to cope with daily life and to try our bests in everything that we make our minds up.

As teachers, we are able to help children develop this capacity of choice. Little by little, we can help them realise that they have the capacity to reach everything that they want. Children are part of society and they need to learn how to interact with it. Teachers should always be there to help them discover the necessary tools needed in the art of living.

Ethics for Amador by Fernando Savater

Antipedagogic notice

Ethics is not a substitute for religion. Ethics is to do with everything that surrounds us. We live in a society and within it there are always issues that we can consider to be worth of a discussion of them being good or bad for us.

Ethics closely related to moral. Moral reflection is a part of our lives. Considering what is good or bad helps us be better people.

The ultimate goal of ethics and moral is to help us be Free thinkers, to allow us to speak our minds but without forgeting that there are other people who might feel offended by what we have to say. Respect to others' thoughts and believes is a crucial part if we want to live our lifes within a society.

We have many times over the last half a century expierenced what happens to a society when ideas, thoughts and believes are not respected as they should. People gone missing, fear to speak one's minds... Things that should never occur ever nor again...

Prologue

Reading this part of the book was very touching and at the same time funny to notice that what I thought only happened to me seems to occur world-wide...

My parents love to philosophise about life... I have passed long hours listening to them doing this. Sometimes I paid more attention than others, but I was always patient to what they were trying to say. Growing up is usually a step-by-step adventure. I sometimes skkiped some steps and later I faced some philosophical reflections on what had happened and the whys...

"Have faith in yourself" This is a message from Savater, but it is also the message I've got from my parents all my life. It is very important to have faith and to believe in oneself because one is the only one who has the answers to our inner problems and issues. Of course, there is always someone you can resort to when in need. I love to call this someone "Mum" and "Dad".