1. For Plato and Aristotle, determining the nature of the good life (the best life) is certainly important but this represents only a minor fraction of their total philosophic output, written material.

2. In the context of philosophy overall, the good life problem represents only a very small portion of what philosophy is about and this can be verified by flipping through any good encyclopedia of philosophy.

3. Arthur Schopenhauer argued that the goal of human life is not happiness; it is unhappiness. His view is futilitarianism.

4. A.J. Ayer argued that the question of the meaning of life is a meaningless question. The assumption this question contains, that there is a universal purpose for all humans is false. Life’s meaning is matter of personal decision and varies from person to person. Ethical skepticism or ethical relativism.

5. For Kant, the proper goal of life is not simply happiness (the overall satisfaction of desires, the natural good) it is happiness which is deserved on the basis of being a moral person, a virtuous person. Happiness is a part, not the whole, of the purpose. The goal is the complete good and this has two parts: the moral good (virtue)and the natural good (happiness).

6. Having spent a lot of time searching in the area of the philosophy of life, there is one book I recommend as amazingly good. It is by the (now deceased) Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick, and it is called The Examined Life (1989) Simon and Schuster. Some of it is written for laypersons and some of it is not.