Russell Natherson Alexander Torres Hum2305 3 November 2014 The Pursuit of the Good Life: Individual or Societal Effort In the readings Five-Fold Happiness and Symposium, Sung and Plato respectably try to formulate a method on achieving the Good Life. In Sung’s work, Five-Fold Happiness, the Good Life (GL) is related to the contentment of the individual. According to the work, satisfaction is only found when all five virtues are fulfilled. In Symposium, Plato composes the Ladder of Love, and considers the GL to be the ability to see the beauty of everything; and loving that beauty. With respect to the viewpoints presented in their works the pursuit of the GL as an individual endeavor and as a societal effort will be observed. After analyzing Therefore, to achieve prosperity the individual must call on the collective to help in his or her pursuit. Longevity is described as “the desire for long life” (Sung-94). To embody this virtue and live a long life, a healthy attitude and lifestyle is a must. The choice to live in such a way is an individual strife. Society can influence those choices, but the decision for achieving longevity is solely individual. The fourth virtue, Double Happiness, “is synonymous with one of life’s most important celebrations-marriage” (Sung 156). Marriage obviously cannot occur without two individuals, which means it cannot be achieved alone. But in order for love to be found and marriage to occur, an individual endeavor must occur as well. One person must be willing to be vulnerable so another can learn to love him or her. When determining if double happiness can be achieved individually or through society, one must be aware that the choice to pursue this virtue is individual; but for it to transpire society is needed. The final virtue is wealth. According to Sung, wealth is the material aspect of life: prosperity through “business, trade, or good harvests” (Sung 210). To reach this level of materialism, one must work hard and be Preceding its description he enlightens Socrates on a disclaimer; pursuing the Ladder of Love, even in right spirit, does not assure the achievement of the GL. The Ladder of Love metaphorically relates a ladder to the higher concept of appreciating the beauty in life. As one climbs the rungs, a shift occurs between the roles of the individual and the community. At the lowest rung of the ladder, an individual merely has one job; to recognize the beauty of oneself. If similarities are recognized between ones’ body, and that of another, a domino effect occurs. This effect leads to realizing the beauty in everyone; their physical aspects, talents and minds. Further allowing for the recognition of the beauty in knowledge, understanding, and beauty itself. Objects and concepts do not possess beauty, but beauty possess them. Once beauty is recognized in all things, love easily follows. It is human nature to love physical beauty, but realizing beauty takes many forms in all things, it can be loved by anyone. To pursue the GL individually one can use the steps presented by Plato as a guide. When one is able to recognize and love all forms of beauty (animate, inanimate, and abstract) then one may attain the GL. In the same way, society can also use this method to enjoy the beauty of all. A flaw can easily be spotted in the conclusion that the Ladder of Love can be used by an individual void of society to find
beauty before we can truly cherish other forms of beauty around us. “Two or three things
From the beginning of time, humans have always endeavored to be happy. During this time, thousands of different people have given their interpretation of the term happiness. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the simplified definition of happiness is feeling pleasure or joy because of a certain situation. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Controller, Mustapha Mond, conceals the truth in order to keep everyone happy. He gives people drugs and brainwashes them into believing that life is good. Satisfying. When John the Savage is introduced to the World State, he questions all things pertaining to “civilization.” The civilized people are willing to do everything in their power to hide from the truth. Throughout the story of Brave New World, every character craves happiness in some way, shape, or form; similarly, our society today concentrates and will
As the last speaker, and the most important one, Socrates connects his ideas with Diotima of Mantinea’s story of Love’s origin, nature and purpose. Different from the earlier five speakers who regard Love as an object and praise different sides of it, Socrates, referring to Diotima’s idea, considers Love as a pursuit of beauty gradually ranging from “physical beauty of people in general” (Symposium, Plato, 55) to the “true beauty” (55). The first five speeches bond with each other. Each of them mentions the opinions of the former in order to either support or against them. However, just like the elements of a beautiful picture, they fail to show us the integration of love.
Love and beauty is another theme that recurs in Greek discussion, especially in Plato’s dialogues. In the Phaedrus and especially the Symposium, Plato discusses the nature of erotic love and give the argument for the ultimately transcendental object of love: Beauty. In both dialogues, Plato presents Socrates as a quintessential philosopher who is a lover of wisdom, and through his great speeches we are able to grasp Platonism and Plato’s view on the interesting theme.
In the book of Apology by Plato, Plato explains what really makes a person attain happiness. Plato tells us that a person needs to have virtues and a well being of the soul in order to actually have happiness. Plato tell us that without virtue there is no way a person is actually happy. He says humans no matter how famous or poor they are they can attain this happiness that they are seeking through virtues. Plato gives us two categories one is first things and in this section are virtues and well being of the soul. The second category is second things and it includes great health, money, job, sex, honor, being famous etc. Most people in our society believe that having the second things bring true happiness to them but Plato says this is incorrect.
In his several dialogues, Plato contends the importance of the four virtues: wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. In The Republic, he describes a top-down hierarchy that correlates to the aspects of one’s soul. Wisdom, courage, and temperance preside control over the rational, spirited, and appetitive aspects of the soul. It is when one maintains a balance between these aspects of his soul that he attains peace within himself: “...And when he has bound together the three principles within him...he proceeds to act...always thinking and calling that which preserves and cooperates with this harmonious condition (Plato 443c).” Wisdom and knowledge consistently remain at the top of his view of happiness. During the apology, Plato is asked what punishment is best suited for him. He sarcastically answers, “to be fed...(It is) much more suitable than for any one who has won a v...
This is referred to as Plato’s ladder of love. According to this theory, a lover must give up all previous objects or individuals as he progresses upward on the ladder aiming to discover the Ideal Form of Beauty (Wiki Symposium). Plato describes the steps of the ladder of love to be first, the view of physical beauty, second the view of beauty in general, and following that, the moral beauty of minds and knowledge. Finally, the absolute idea, to view that of beauty itself, and to attain the love of wisdom, is Plato’s last ring on the ladder (Traumatized). Socrates believed “by going through these stages, one will ascend from loving particular kinds of beauty to loving Beauty itself, from which all beautiful things derive their nature” (Sparknotes). This concept became the starting point of the Platonic love theory, a type of love that is pure and non-sexual. In the end, Socrates concluded that there is no greater companion for human nature than
Happiness is the main focus in life and should always be held most high according to Aristotle. He spends a great deal of time explaining how to achieve this we will see that, Aristotle was sure a genuinely happy life required a combination of many things. Which included physical and mental health? Bringing about a scientific way to look at happiness in its entirety.
Happiness is a challenging emotion or state of mind that is hard to define. It is remarkably difficult because every person on earth has a dissimilar view on happiness. Happiness should be understood as something that fulfills the person’s abilities. If he or she achieves happiness, then that equates to a balance of pleasure, honor, and self-sufficiency. Aristotle believes the greatest good is happiness. He describes happiness as, “an activity that is guided by and exercises the human virtues” (60). Is the highest good happiness? What are the characteristics of good? Do we all require habituation to become good? Such questions as these stirs up emotional reactions among debates of the topic.
As one ponders on how to live a good life, many ideas come to mind. Whether this may be wealth, family, or beauty, the early philosopher’s theories need to be taken into consideration. Those early philosophers include Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and The Epicureans. These four committed their lives towards bettering life, and are the basis of most philosophical theories. It is evident that these four need to be read, understood, and discussed to better understand one’s life. They always pondered on the thought of how to have a perfect life and society. When one makes their own theory, based upon these early philosophers, not only do they need to establish a strong belief system, it is required to practice this too. Plato had the most basic of theories, being that only virtue was needed in life to be happy and nothing else. For Aristotle, he used Plato’s foundation and added that external goods, such as wealth, respect, friends, and beauty were all necessary. Without one of these, Aristotle believes that one cannot live a happy life. For the Stoics, they settled on a balanced approached between virtue and external goods, saying that virtue is necessary, yet external goods are preferred too. The Epicureans largely argue the Stoics view, and present that pleasure (tranquility) is the goal of every life, but virtues and friends are required for this. Each theory has many critics, even with Aristotle being a critic of his own theory. None seems perfect, yet all fit today’s modern society. I found that I agree with the Stoics theory the most, and find that any external good is fine as long as virtue is the basis of that person’s life.
What establishes a noble, valuable, enjoyable life? Many philosophers tried their own beliefs to these ancient and most persistent of philosophical question. Most of Philosophers have agreed that the best possible life is a life where the ideas of “virtue” and “happiness” are fulfilled. Nevertheless expected differences in terms, many great minds theorized that the road to a joyful, flourishing, happy life is paved with virtues. For example, Aristotle believed that anyone keen to live a virtuous life will reach happiness (Aristotle 1992).
It is said that happiness is a feeling that lies in the clarity of the soul, tranquility of the heart, and peace of the mind. However it is also said that happiness is the actual sense of fulfillment that arises from hard work and self-actualization. It is an intangible state of mind that all humans aim to conquer. Sometimes people tend to associate happiness with something familiar, with what they lack or fail to maintain, for if they fall ill, it would be health and if they were short of money, it would be wealth. If we considered these as particular goods or transitory moments of joy that are subject to change, then what defines the ultimate happiness? With all the different views on happiness, what makes some claim that there can only be one true meaning for man’s ultimate bliss, and all the rest of meanings are fallacious ones? Aristotle says “Our task is to become good men, or to achieve the highest human good. That good is happiness”. This paper aims to examine and evaluate the concept of happiness according to each of Al Farabi & Al Ghazali, whereby it sheds light on the elements of true happiness for each author, their mutual views, road of attaining it as well as their divergence of thought regarding that concept, taking into consideration the influence of Islamic theology.
Happiness is a universal feeling and it is most commonly associated with a smile. In many countries there are different levels of happiness, in our country happiness is a goal that we all have. The obstacle to achieving this goal is “finding” happiness, which is an idea, not an object, and it can be hard to find. Many people try to find happiness by using books, videos, or listening to motivational speakers. The argument about money and if it can bring happiness is prevalent today and can be an engaging topic.
The Psychology of Happiness provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of analysis into the character of happiness and where it stems. Using analysis from the disciplines of social science, physiology and economic science still as psychological science. Argyle explores the character of positive and negative emotions, and therefore the psych. He describes the effects of positive moods and happiness. Since science is the study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment many people feel that using science in research is very effective in preparing an argument. I feel that this text will be helpful
Some people believe that happiness has to do with and an emotional state of being or with a mental state of richness or ownership. While people believe happiness is an end of an achievement others say that it is a start of a great future. Happiness can be categorized in several ways but the three common are in the state of well-being, ownership/richness, or accomplishment. Sam Wren Lewis mentions in his article, “ How Successfully Can We Measure Well-Being through Measuring Happiness?”, that there are two types of happiness for well being, a short term and a long term to defining it. Another author, Dwight R. Lee, states that money does indeed by happiness but to an extent in his “ Who Says Money Cannot Buy Happiness?”. Then