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John stuart mill theory on happiness
John stuart mill theory on happiness
John stuart mill theory on happiness
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In John Mill's autobiography suggest that pursuing happiness is a waste of time. Mill’s states that searching for happiness will make you unhappy in the long run. Instead, focus on something else like the purpose of your life. I think Mill's argument is to focus on the meaning of life instead of happiness. I agree with this argument because I have observations,experiences in my life, and that your meaning in life stay with you longer than cheerfulness.
I have observed that having a meaning in life is more significant than being happy. One observation had to deal with my mom because it showed me that purpose was more important than happiness. My mom was sad for a couple days, she was trying to be happy. The more she tries to be happy , more of the cloud of unhappiness came over her. But I asked if she could
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make my lunch one day. She immediately started to smile. I didn’t understand why , so I ask her. She said because I am feeling useful again. I realize then that my mom felt like she lose the purpose in her life. At that moment she got back. I realized that my mom was focusing on the wrong thing. She need to focus on the goal of her life. Another reason why I agree with Mill is because of my own experiences.
I try to give in life and not take so much. “Leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a “ giver”, that how I want people to look at me (Smith 9). I try to give my to time to others by helping others when the need to work on something. For example , help at the homeless outreach at my church. When I’m there, I felt like I’m give to others who can give to themselves. Another way I give back is by helping friends. I help my friend move into her new house or helping a friend with homework.
The last reason why I agree with Mill is because meaning stays in your life. The purpose is a longer feel to me because it stay longer with you. I feel like happiness is a quick pithy feeling “happiness is an emotion felt in the here and now , it ultimately fades away”(Smith 16). For example’ eating something good will only feel good for a moment. The joy you will never get enough. Mean is strong and it keeps going . Smith says that “meaning on the other hand , is enduring”. Some people think that mission won’t make you as joyful as happiness. But it can , you can change it and make it your own
thing. Thought my observation and experience, also idea of meaning last long. I have agreed with Mill's statement. Mill’s idea was to focus on the mean. Smith said that meaning is enduring. So my last thoughts is that purpose in life is on outgoing and enjoyment will never compare to meaning.
John Stuart Mill, who is an English philosopher, explains another way of achieving happiness based off of his personal experience. After suffering from a d...
In the essay Why Happiness, Why Now? Sara Ahmed talks about how one’s goal in life is to find happiness. Ahmed begins her essay with skepticism and her disbeliefs in happiness. She shows her interest in how happiness is linked to a person’s life choices. Ahmed also tries to dig deeper, and instead of asking an unanswerable question, “what is Happiness?” she asks questions about the role of happiness in one’s life.
People push being happy on society as a total must in life; sadness is not an option. However, the research that has conducted to the study of happiness speaks otherwise. In this essay Sharon Begley's article "Happiness: Enough Already" critiques and analyzes societies need to be happy and the motivational affects it has on life. Begley believes that individuals do not always have to be happy, and being sad is okay and even good for us. She brings in the research of other professionals to build her claim that extreme constant happiness is not good for people. I strongly agree that we need to experience sadness to build motivation in life and character all around.
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.
In Darrin McMahon’s article “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” (2005) he argues that we don’t really find happiness when we want to we are happy when we don’t realize it. for example, in a blog positivityblog.com, “Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”-Eleanor Roosevelt. In McMahone’s article he’s saying the samething that if we don’t find happiness help someone else find
John Stuart Mill writes in a publication in the 1800s about the subject of happiness. John is a philosopher who is trying to say in this quote that happiness is a byproduct of what we strive to achieve in our lives everyday, whether that be doing what’s right in our mind or just having fun partaking in one of our hobbies. Many have pondered this question and have come up with varying conclusions. Some believe that a state of happiness is a choice, when it in fact it is more complex than that. In order to achieve happiness however, we must be indirect about it as happiness cannot be a conscious feeling, and in order to achieve it in the first place, we need to pursue things other than our own happiness to become happy. (Brink 89)
Mill made a distinction between happiness and sheer sensual pleasure. He defines happiness in terms of higher order pleasure (i.e. social enjoyments, intellectual). In his Utilitarianism (1861), Mill described this principle as follows:According to the Greatest Happiness Principle … The ultimate end, end, with reference to and for the sake of which all other things are desirable (whether we are considering our own good or that of other people), is an existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible enjoyments.Therefore, based on this statement, three ideas may be identified: (1) The goodness of an act may be determined by the consequences of that act. (2) Consequences are determined by the amount of happiness or unhappiness caused. (3) A "good" man is one who considers the other man's pleasure (or pain) as equally as his own.
In utilitarianism, all moral actions promote the greatest happiness in the greatest amount of people. This is done indiscriminitley, meaning that every person counts as one unit and nobody 's happiness is placed over another 's. Indeed, Mill believes that all humans are seeking, as an ultimate end, happiness, and all other pursuits are simply means to that end. He defends this view by raising other possible ends and showing that they are all a part of happiness, rather than a separate puruit. He also shows why, once we have attained a higher sense of intelect and other faculties, no human, save for extreme circumstances, would ever choose to revert to a simpler state of mind, despite the fact that these simpler people may be more satisfied with their lot than those of higher faculties. He believes this a general principle, although sometimes a lack of willpower can cause a person to seak a lower principle. Mill solidifies this sentiment with the statement: better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied"
Mill claims that happiness is the ultimate good and the ultimate end of human being. According to me human being is applying this principle in his everyday life. By trying to attain our own happiness, we deal with situations where the happiness of others has to been taken into account. Thus, by applying the “rule utilitarianism” and taking into examples the previous situations others may have face, we can really improve our life and may be find a basis for the foundation of morality.
In John Stuart Mill’s autobiography A Crisis in My Mental History: One Stage Onward, Mill opines that when a person sets happiness as an expectation or life goal, he or she is normally left discontent and unsatisfied. He argues that the easiest way to feel happy is to not focus on trying to be happy. Furthermore, Mill states that there are plenty of things in life that can lead to our enjoyment and make us blissful if only our goal is not to find happiness from them. He closes by stating that this is a great life philosophy for anyone who is sensible. John Stuart Mill is correct because trying to find happiness leads to discontent but bliss comes to a person when they are not focused on finding happiness.
In Mill’s essay on utilitarianism, Mill observes that a great amount of people misunderstand utilitarianism by having utility and pleasure together in the same idea and concept. In fact, Mill says utility is described as a pleasure and an absence of pain. Mill observes the relation to utilities and happiness and decides that utility could be seen as the Greatest Happiness Principle. This principle holds that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure." Pleasure and the absence of pain are the only things that people wish to gain and keep. Therefore, events and situations are only desirable if they are a source for pleasures it is a source for happiness; these actions towards events are only good when they lead towards a higher level of happiness, and bad when they decrease that level. After this, Mill looks at the idea that states it is degrading towards humans to say that the meaning of life ...
For Mill, the goal of morality is “not solely the pursuit of happiness, but the prevention or mitigation of unhappiness”. (Mill, pp15) For many other philosophers criticized him, by arguing that if happiness means a continuity of highly pleasurable excitement, it is evident enough that this is impossible. For a state of pleasure lasts only moments or in some cases, hours or days, and is the occasional brilliant flash of enjoyment, not its permanent and steady flame. Therefore, to response to these criticisms, Mill argues that if pure happiness is impossible to be always obtained and last forever, then we should at least reduce the amount of pain that may result from our
who achieve sense of meaning in their lives are happier than those who live from one pleasure to another.
...attainment of happiness is oftentimes difficult, so we are morally justified in searching to essentially reduce the amount of unhappiness and pain experienced by the human beings impacted by some of our actions. According to Mill, the absence of pleasure is only acceptable when it is for the greater good of humanity.
Happiness can come in different forms for each person. Some people dream of achieving great wealth to buy everything they ever wanted. Others may find simple tasks such as, reading a book, to make them happy. There are people who find happiness by making others happy, whether it’d be, feeding the homeless, or giving random compliments to strangers. I think that most people would agree that the purpose of life is happiness. There are several things that bring happiness to my world, which include, family, health, and laughter, among other things. Accomplishments can also bring happiness to people, which is what many people strive for during their lives. It can be a promotion, diploma, house, etc. It is usually something that is challenging,