In this essay, I will present to you how happiness conflicts with morality by going through a specific scenario where the likes of two concepts are challenged. In addition, I will alternative endings and translations to this scenario by using the perspectives of Aristotelian and Kantian philosophies along with my own. Moreover, the scenario will challenge your perception of happiness and morality. Morality in a superficial sense is a guide for your behavior and happiness can be seen as satisfaction towards yourself or others. Of course, these interpretations aren’t the words of Aristotle or Kant but as you read the scenario it’s important to keep those light definitions in mind.
In this case scenario, I’m in an elevator at a hotel because I’m leaving a party and going home because I felt tired. I’m in this elevator alone and someone joins the elevator as I’m going down to the lobby. As the door opens, it’s a young woman in her early twenties who seems to have been crying by the redness in her eyes. I get a full look at her she’s a pretty girl with some relatively stylish clothing as if she came back from a party as well. But, as I glance at her sleeves I see horizontal cuts on her wrists. At this particular moment in time, I don’t know what to think or to do. I’m a guy who doesn’t like to delve into other people’s lives and not exactly a good Samaritan either so in terms of good deeds, it seems as I wasn’t keen to get them here. So, we’re going doing this elevator and I
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As you know these words come from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, perhaps one of the greatest documents ever written. However, I do have a little problem with the last four words sentence, “the pursuit of Happiness” because I believe it actually sends an easily misinterpreted message.
Mahatma Gandhi one defined happiness as “when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Barring any better definition of happiness from either positive psychologists, self-help gurus, or any other academic source, I tend to think this is a great summation of the definition of happiness. Gandhi doesn’t say anything about how these things make you feel, rather looks at it from a point of view of harmony between thoughts, expressions, and actions. Since one single accepted definition of happiness doesn’t seem to exist, and happiness is different for everyone, this begs the question; how can you increase your own personal level of happiness?
In Book 1 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that happiness is the best good, and the goal of an individual and of those leading and governing society. Here, happiness is understood as both living well and doing well, rather than the convention sense of happiness as an emotion. According to Aristotle, happiness is achieved though actions involving reason and in accord with virtue, or the best of the virtues of there are more than one. In this paper, I will provide a brief overview of the work and its author, then proceed to provide an overview of the ideas expressed and the argumentation supporting them, before finally performing an analysis and critique of the ideas expressed.
Success is extremely coveted in the society, however on the path to success, obstacles will stand in the way. Failure is inevitable and the response of an individual towards these obstacles and the failures in their lives determines whether or not they will have success. Failure gives allowance to learn from mistakes and motivates to do better the next time. The Pursuit of Happyness uses lighting, music and camera angles to give viewers an insight into Chris’ journey through the film demonstrating his resiliency, optimism and loving personality. Filmmaker, Gabriele Muccino, uses the protagonist, Chris’ final triumph to illustrate the significance of failure in achieving success.
People travel through life with what seems like a single goal: to be happy. This may seem like a selfish way to live, however this lone objective is the motivation behind nearly all actions. Even seemingly selfless deeds make people feel better about themselves. That warm feeling experienced while doing charitable acts can be described as happiness. But what is authentic happiness? There is an endless possibility of answers to this question, and man seems to be always searching for the solution. Although one may reach his or her goals, there is always still something one strives for in order to be happy. In the book Stumbling on Happiness, Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert takes the reader through
According to the Dictionary, “happiness is the mental or emotional state of well being which can be defined by others. A pleasurable or satisfying experience.”. Of course that’s true, the feeling of happiness is what it’s scientifically defined as, but happiness is much more than that. Happiness could be a certain sound, a smell, even feeling a certain piece of clothing or a thick warm blanket. People spend hours even years trying to work for what they think is happiness. They work for hours to get large amounts of money, but they never find the happiness their looking for. That’s because happiness isn't materialistic, happiness isn't something you can buy with expensive items. Even though some people believe you can buy happiness, that’s
Happiness: a Human Disease -- An Examination of the Allegorical Theme of Existentialism in the Happy Man
In 1984, the concept of happiness is portrayed as meaningless and that the truth opposes happiness. According to Big Brother and the party, they can only survive by suppressing individual happiness and freedom. People are not allowed to pursue happiness because if they have the freedom they could revolt against the party, and the party wants to control people’s minds and emotions so that they follow Big Brother. Big Brother, though he never appears in the book, he is an extremely important figure. He is perceived as the ruler of Oceania and his image is everywhere, in every telescreen in every room. His image haunts Winston’s life and fills him with hatred. The party controls people through fear. The main character in 1984 is Winston, he
For our Economics subject, we watched The Pursuit of Happyness, a movie based on Chris Gardner, a salesman who was not making that much money and eventually experiences homelessness with his five-year old son. He faces problems when his wife is unwilling to accept his goal to become a stockbroker and leaves him. However, he perseveres even under all this stress.
Immanuel Kant refers to happiness as contentment (Kant, ) whereas John Stuart Mill refers to it as the pursuit of pleasure and the absence of pain (Mill, p.7). Kant does not base his ethics on happiness. Instead, he argues that morality is based on our duty as a human (Kant, ). To do what is right for Kant is to do what is instinctually moral without giving thought to the overall happiness. On the other hand, Mill does in fact use happiness as the bases for his ethics. He proposes that actions are right if they promote overall happiness and wrong if they promote the opposite of happiness (Mill, ). In this paper, it will be argued that Mill 's views on happiness are more reasonable than those of Kant 's because happiness should be the base for ethics.
Happiness is not a strange term to us. We usually use that word to express our feelings in every day. Additionally, more than a word, “happiness” is what we really need and always seek in life. However, finding and understanding deeply its meaning is not easy. The online dictionary, “vocabulary.com” defines, “Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people are successful, or safe, or lucky, they feel happiness.” Thus, we always wonder if we are happy or how could we be happier in our life. Happiness, therefore, becomes a goal for everybody.
What is being happy actually like? With the money, school, work, friends, family, etc. issues, how is it possible to become fully happy if there is always something that could be interfering with it? We live in America that promises us to to be all equal and can experience the “life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” But every news show that’s turned on, we hear about a 13 year old “entertaining” child who’s trending on every social media network about her disrespecting her mother more often than the issue on two American adults making terrorist threats and waving a confederate flag at a black child’s birthday party. We Americans get the free education until we graduate to find out that we actually don’t know what
Many philosophers through history have dealt with happiness, pleasure, justice, and virtues. In this essay there will given facts on virtues between two philosophers who have different views on the topic. Aristotle and Kant have two totally different views on virtue, one being based on the soul and how you character depicts you virtue and the other which is based of the fact that anyone has a chance of being morally good, even bad people. There is a lot of disagreement between Aristotle and Kant, which has examples to back the disagreements. Aristotle takes virtue as an excellence, while Kant takes it more to being a person doing something morally good in the society and for them as a person. One similarity between these two philosophers though, is that these two descriptions of virtue lead back to happiness in the individual. At the end of this essay, the reader should be capable of understanding that Aristotle’s theory is more supported than Kant’s theory. Of course, explanations for both sides will be given thoroughly throughout this comparison.
It is human nature to want and desire certain things out of life. For the most part, people want the same things. No one is the same as anyone else but we all share the fact that we want to make our lives as good as we possibly can. There are many ways to achieve happiness and everything that is wanted out of life can make you happy. Whatever a person’s truest desire may be, if they obtain that desire they obtain happiness. All that is desired falls under “What will make you happy in life?” We long to be happy, but what gets us there?
"A library of wisdom, is more precious than all wealth, and all things that are desirable cannot be compared to it." -- Plato