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My view on happiness
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The question of what it means to live a good life revolves around human nature all the time. Philosophers try to justify what a person needs to do to live the best life. Some philosophers argue happiness makes a life whole, and there are certain actions one takes to earn a good life. The next question these philosophers try to answer is whether a good life is comprised by living life in the pursuit of happiness and living justly. Plato, St Thomas, Marx, and Kant are among the philosophers that explored this question. Plato’s argument on happiness revolves around the city modeled on his “Republic”. The citizens in the city are the happiest, because they are able to achieve what they place value on. Plato also recognizes that in order to achieve …show more content…
Through a readjustment of economic conditions that would allow those who are poor or in the middle class to have their fair share of possessions fulfillment and meaning could be achieved. Marx is concerned with economic conditions in looking at the meaning of life, and believes the meaning of life can only be analyzed in materialistic terms. Therefore, Marx argues people are defined by what they do or make. In a capitalist system people are ultimately unhappy because they are unable to do what will fulfill them. Marx claims that if capitalism was overthrown it would bring about greater human happiness. In Marx famous quote, “labor is the source of happiness” he presents the importance of the material life. Marx’s view of happiness illustrates that it is the combination of creation and enjoyment. These philosophers offer a rounded perspective on achieving happiness. In examining these philosophers, I believe Marx is too focused on the materialistic items, and it is possible to be happy and not have anything. It is equally possible to be rich and unhappy. On the other perspective with the philosopher Kant, I do not believe that reason is the sole driving factor to achieve happiness. My views seem to align most with St Thomas and Plato. I agree that others may have different types of happiness depending on what they value, as Plato
Everyone desires to live a good life and people are always searching for ways to do so. In my case, by moving to the United States, I now have the opportunity to live a good life, but my definition differs from everyone else’s. I believe that living a good life means getting a good education, working hard, family support, willing to adapt new environment, having a leader, and becoming a self-made individual.
To understand Plato’s view of the nature of human beings one must also understand his view of the world and the soul in turn. Plato’s Republic is a Socratic dialogue, this excerpt from Book IX relays the second of a three-part argument aiming to prove that a man who leads a just life leads a happier and more fulfilled life than the unjust man.
Happiness is often viewed as a subjective state of mind in which one may say they are happy when they are on vacation with friends, spending time with their family, or having a cold beer on the weekend while basking in the sun. However, Aristotle and the Stoics define happiness much differently. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes happiness as “something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action” (NE 1097b20). In this paper, I will compare and contrast Aristotle and the Stoics’ view on human happiness. Aristotle argues that bodily and external goods are necessary to happiness, while Epictetus argues they are not.
Happiness is life according to virtues and flourishing while eliminating pleasures and desires. It is very critical to practice living virtuously because this will help you in the process of flourishing. Both virtues and flourishing will lead you to happiness. There are many different positions that I will be considering throughout this essay. I will be talking about the view that happiness is an illusion. I also will go into the hedonistic view of happiness. I will be using some of Aristotle's accounts of happiness to defend my arguments. My argument on what happiness is that it is very important and you will benefit from learning about my arguments. You will benefit from these arguments because it will aid you in process of being happy and living a well fulfilled life. You will learn to flourish and become a virtuous person, overall achieving a happy life.
“ The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less, said Greek Philosopher Socrates. Philosophers have said that happiness is about living a good life. Looking at the reading we see different views of what people thought happiness was. We will explore the different characters and stories of a few people like Epicurus, Epictetus, and Socrates. Whether it be through doing what we want to do or doing what we ought to do through happiness or pleasure.
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).
Unlike Freud, believes that having a purpose and finding happiness are connected in his book, “The Republic.” Plato determines that happiness can be created if our society is just. He describes this through his representation of a perfect civilization. From Plato’s teachings one can infer that to establish justice, one’s purpose, and happiness, one must establish several maxims in one’s life including specialization and moderation. Although Plato describes happiness on an individual and group level, he mainly views perfect as the quality of the happiness of the
Every decision that we make has an effect on one’s life. Simple choices like the clothes we wear to complex decisions like the schools we attend shape our future. Most decisions made by people are to help them achieve success or live a “good life.” The common steps to living a “good life” are going to school to get educated, going to work to support yourself, and retiring to enjoy the remaining years. Just two years ago, I made a decision to go to LASA high school instead of my home school. Why did I do this? I felt that being educated would help me live a “good life.” The problem I had was that I neither understood what a “good life” was, nor did I know how education would help me live a “good life”. The quest for the answer will help me understand more about myself and my values, as well as help me find steps to create the life I want.
However, we can wonder if the pleasures that derive from necessary natural desires are what actually brings us happiness, since having a family, friends, a good job and doing fun things seem to bring the most joy in life. Plato’s ideas on life are even more radical, since he claims that we should completely take difference from our bodily needs. Therefore it seems that we should only do what is necessary for us to stay a life and solely focus on the mind. Although both ways of dealing with (bodily)pleasure are quite radical and almost impossible to achieve, it does questions if current perceptions of ‘living the good life’ actually leads to what we are trying to achieve, which is commonly described as
The pursuit for happiness has been a quest for man throughout the ages. In his ethics, Aristotle argues that happiness is the only thing that the rational man desires for its own sake, thus, making it good and natural. Although he lists three types of life for man, enjoyment, statesman, and contemplative, it is the philosopher whom is happiest of all due to his understanding and appreciation of reason. Aristotle’s version of happiness is not perceived to include wealth, honor, or trivial
The meaning of a “good life” can be interpreted in various ways. The term “good” can be seen as happiness and fulfilment because of personal achievements, but it can also be seen as in being a morally just person because you put others before yourself by giving back to your community. “Life” in its plainest meaning can be just living, but it can also be lifelong goals that give you a purpose for existing. Together the “good life” in this sense has two different meanings. It can be achieving fulfillment because of the actions you did to benefit yourself, but it can also be finding happiness in others through charity and turning that into your own happiness. Personally, the second interpretation of a “good life” is my position on this, but to fully understand the “good life,” it is important to see the opposite of that, a miserable life.
Lovin’s defines ethics as “…how we try to become good people and shape for ourselves a life that is worth living” (7). According to Lovin, Christian faith cannot be separated from our ethics as they shape and define each other. Moral choices define an individual’s ethics and each choice must be an individual decision that none other can make (7). Lovin’s definition must be divided into two parts in order to effectively comprehend his rationale. The first, ethics as an attempt to become good, encounters people in the crossroads of their lives. Christians live with the curse and blessing of being painstakingly aware of their goodness and task of doing good in the world. Lovin states “We wonder whether we pay enough attention to people in need…
I was raised as a Catholic and always looked at morality as values and vice versa. I never truly made a distinction between the two until I was older and had to help my own children differentiate between the two. I grew up feeling that if I was kind and truthful, I was a person with strong values, but as I have aged, my thoughts on being moral and what it means have changed. To me now, values are having ideas of what is important to me or not. I value a friend ship or I do not value it. Where morality is the guidelines or rules about how I chose to live my life and I choose the morals that are guided by my Catholic faith. I know that God has given me free will to make choices that can be morally correct and align with God’s plan for me or I can use my free will to make choices that might be morally wrong and lead me in a path further from God. In the book The Tem Commandments, Eileen P. Flynn states that morality is “knowledge based on human experience, reason, and God’s revelation that discovers what we ought to be and what we ought to do to live fully human lives” (Flynn, 2010, p.
Happiness can be viewed as wealth, honour, pleasure, or virtue. Aristotle believes that wealth is not happiness, because wealth is just an economic value, but can be used to gain some happiness; wealth is a means to further ends. The good life, according to Aristotle, is an end in itself. Similar to wealth, honour is not happiness because honour emphases on the individuals who honour in comparison to the honouree. Honour is external, but happiness is not. It has to do with how people perceive one another; the good life is intrinsic to the...