Karrieren og det gode liv: En kritisk analyse af karrieren som svaret på det gode liv

Abstrakt

This thesis explores the correlation between having a career and attaining the good life. We set out to formulate a critique of this correlation, on the grounds that this is the product of a false consciousness. There is an assumption in career development literature that such a correlation exists, and thus, it becomes a strong motivational factor for the individual to develop their career in the prospect of attaining the good life. We provide a diagnosis of contemporary society, to further grasp the conditions that individuals in late modernity must abide by in order to live and act out their lives. With this as the foundations we formulate a critique of how the career systematically undermines the possibilities for the individual to attain the good life. To provide an alternative way than the career to attain the good life, we suggest the use of stoic philosophy and praxis. By using this philosophy, it is argued, that both the career and the good life will be possible to attain, without a mingling of the two. It is suggested, that if we aspire to attain the good life through a creation of the successful career, it will lead to an unhappy life. If the career and the good life are separated, this however will lead to an improvement of both.
We have suggested the use of stoic philosophy in order to revive a subject and discussion which in contemporary society has been silenced, namely what the good life should be for mankind. We find many accounts of how people live their life in our modern society, but to discuss how the good life should be for anyone else than oneself has become a taboo. This thesis therefore tries to break with a strong assumption in modern times, which is the right for anyone to define his or her life as he or she sees fit and the assumption that no one can criticize anybody’s choice of life. It is the aspiration of this thesis to revive this discussion, so that we yet again can explore this aspect of life, which we find to be of utmost importance.