Argument Of Desire Satisfactionism

Many of us are very family oriented and believe that family should always be present in our life no matter what do in life. While some of us feel that, our desire is worth more important than family due to the lack of communication with family members. In the “Achievement of Desire” by Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez recalls some of the difficulties he had at a young age, which was balancing his life academically and practicing the Mexican traditions. His desire was more important to him than his family because communication with his family was not as strong as before when he began to get more involved in his education, which separates him from his family mentally and physically.

Gratification comes from any even that engages us fully. Seligman claims that “…individuals may find gratification in participating in a great conversation, fixing a bike, reading a good book…or accomplishing a difficult task at work.” (Seligman, Parks, and Steen 419) Senior also states that “doing something that engages or enhances our strengths is a gratification, whether it’s swimming, welding, or listening to a friend in need.” (Senior 428) It is interesting to note that engagement activities aimed at increasing happiness are not always enjoyable in and of themselves. Seligman notes that “consider, for example, the gratification that comes from training for an endurance even such as a marathon. At any given point during the grueling event, a runner may be discouraged or exhausted or even in physical pain; however, they may describe the overall experience as intensely gratifying.” (Seligman, Parks, and Steen 419) From this we see that gratification may help enhance our overall happiness, not through the activity itself, but from the feeling of accomplishment or well-being we experience as the end result.

“A positive sense of wellbeing which

From the perspective of positive psychology, there is a well-being formula invested by Martin Seligman to achieve a higher well-being. Martin Seligman (2010) defined as happiness: H (to maintain the length of happiness) = S (happy range breadth) + V (you can control the factors) + C (your living environment). Happy length: the distinction between "temporary" happy and "persistent" happy. Temporary happiness can be achieved by food, comedy, bunch of flowers. While the persistence of happiness is mainly affected by genetic, and this genetic trait can be changed. The breadth of happiness: psychologists think that we are born with a happy constant point, like a thermometer. If there is a happier thing, even if we are upset, it will be dedicated

Firstly, premise one sets out that the Desire-Satisfaction Theory’s basic consideration is that in order for something to increase our welfare, it must be something we “want, like or care about.” In other words, for something to truly benefit us, it must be something we desire and have a genuine attraction to. To define, the desire-satisfaction theory holds that when something we desire is fulfilled, we receive satisfaction, thus, we benefit. Welfare is defined by Heathwood as things that make us better off, or “fare well.” Similarly, by “benefit” Heathwood is referring to things that make our lives better in themselves. This means that the question of what benefits

There are certain things that are in the control of the humans, at the same time there are several things, which are not under the human’s control. Thus, to persist a happy life, the humans are required to put an end their desire such that the satisfaction of

Another problem is one that deals with the justification of happiness. What is happiness for one person is not necessarily happiness for the other. If there were a basket of oranges given to a starving group of people, one person might be happy to have the orange because it is his favorite fruit and won’t be starving now, but one person might be deathly allergic to oranges and so he will be left starving. The intentions of one person might be to pull the victim form a burning building

The desire satisfaction theory accommodates the thought which hedonism does not accommodate. According to the desire satisfaction theory, our lives go better when the world actually is a certain way, and doesn’t merely appear to be a certain way. An individual experiences pleasure when the desires are satisfied but it is not a guarantee that the desires cause pleasure.

Frankfurt suggests that desiring something often relates to only a specific moment or something that benefits oneself. He uses the example of a person who has free time and decides

In his essay “The Achievement of Desire,” Richard Rodriguez has certain ways of speaking and caring. In particular, he focuses on his education and his family. These two will eventually clash and interfere with each other. Rodriguez contrasts school, family, teachers and most importantly himself. He also tells us how left his childhood and family for education, but when he wanted to return he couldn’t fully do so. He learned he couldn't fully return due to his conforming to education that leads him to observe and analyze everything.

In part one of our book, “The Good Life,” we studied five different philosopher’s viewpoints on what is needed in order for a person to have a good, fulfilling life. They all included the concepts of pleasure and happiness to some extent in their theories, but they all approached the ideas in different ways. The two hedonists we studied, Epicurus and John Stuart Mill, place heavy emphasis on the importance of pleasure. They both believe that pleasure is a necessity in the ideal life. Jean Kazez agreed with their viewpoints in her theory and said that happiness was a necessity for a good life. Epicurus and Mill also argue that there is nothing else that we ultimately desire beyond pleasure and that it is an intrinsic good.

The major criticism of this argument lays in premise three, its “factual premise” as James Rachel calls it in his book. Opponents of this argument and Rachel being one of them, imply that it is wrong to say that satisfaction is one’s only goal because satisfaction doesn’t even have to be a goal. Satisfaction is the presumable state that results from ob-taining a goal. Thus premise three is wrong. One can say that you can make satisfaction your goal if you will feel bad if you don’t do something, but this is not always the case. Satisfaction can result from something else. And it is also incorrect to say that one makes satisfaction his goal then chooses his desires to fulfill the satisfaction. (J. Rachels p. 82)

Freud proposes the Principle of Satisfaction when aiming to be happy, in other words "a problem of satisfying a person's instinctual wishes (Freud 263)." Consequently, he concludes that because our "appetite" can never be fulfilled, the attainment of happiness will be nothing else than pessimistic. Also, he notes, that not all pleasures or wishes can be satisfied as soon as they are conceived. Freud presents the example of a baby, who, initially, believes that all his/her wishes should be gratified, and only later learns, form the Reality Principle, the harsh truth, that the wishes can not be satisfied instantaneously. More than that, life teaches men that in order to experience happiness one must sacrifice the instant gratification of his/her desires in order to achieve happiness in future. A simple example would be when a businessman decides to work overtime in order to receive more money and, thus, receive more pleasure, of course temporary and in future.

Experientialism and the Desire Theory are not totally in conflict with what Mill writes about well-being. In fact there are certain times when Mill's adherence to the Substantive Goods Theory is put into doubt because of cewrtain ideas of the former two which support what Mill says. Despite such similarties, the Substantive Goods Theory manifests itself as a better fit for what Mill says about well-being and how society should encourage people to pursue well-being. Additionally, that theory is consistent with my personal beliefs about what it means to lead a good life.

We began this course with the question “What is happiness? and Can we all achieve authentic Happiness? In our life we are taught many things, but we are not taught how to achieve our own happiness. Over the last five weeks we truly learned what happiness is and I believe we all can achieve authentic happiness in our life. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman uses happiness and well being as the terms to describe the goals of Positive Psychology. The desired outcome of Positive Psychology is happiness and well being. We learned from this course how to embrace both our positive feelings and activities to achieve authentic Happiness.