My question to you is whether “Happiness” or “Pleasure” is an intrinsic good? Also can you relate either theory to your life.
Friday, September 19, 2014
happiness vs. pleasure in your life
Today during the debate there was a big controversy between Aristotle’s “happiness” and the Epicureanism’s “pleasure”. My question is whether happiness or pleasure is the only intrinsic good in life and if so why?
Personally I believe that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. My grounding behind this is that many people argue that the reason people live a virtuous and happy life is because it brings them pleasure. This reasoning would fall under Epicureanism rather then under Aristotle’s “happiness” logic. I believe that I have personal lived by this logic to an existent, I mean if you think about it people try to only do things they find pleasurable and avoid things that cause them pain or that they fear.
The thing most people forget about is, just like Aristotle’s “Golden Mean” for virtue, there is a mean in the Epicurean mind set. Epicureans believe that one can have pleasure in excuse and that some type of pleasures can cause pain. This idea ties very closely to the golden mean. So Epicurean are not greedy pigs that blindly chase after pleasures.
My question to you is whether “Happiness” or “Pleasure” is an intrinsic good? Also can you relate either theory to your life.
My question to you is whether “Happiness” or “Pleasure” is an intrinsic good? Also can you relate either theory to your life.
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Pleasure is the only happiness for the soul. In other words, the medicine for our soul is happiness. What is happiness? Well a pleasure.
ReplyDeletePleasure is something that gives us joy. For example, when I play my guitar or be with my girlfriend I feel happiness and pleasure. One is emotionally and the other physically. Therefore, since they both equalize my soul, they are an intrinsic good.
Is happiness or pleasure an intrinsic good? I think this is a very broad statement; of course happiness and pleasure are an intrinsic good. I think that these two things are not only intrinsic but external as well. Anything that benefits everyone a whole group is going to not only cause happiness/pleasure for the group but positives for the individual of each group. Every human strives for happiness or pleasure. If you ask most people what they want most in their lives, its usually that they want to attain genuine happiness. Happiness/pleasure is something we naturally strive to attain. Being that every person’s version of happiness/pleasure is a little different. In the end even giving to charity for example might make the people on the receiving end happy but it made you ultimately happy for doing it. I think its absolutely intrinsic. Even doing things for other people makes oneself happy. Ultimately we want to feel happy.
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ReplyDeleteAs far as my own life, I don't know if good and happiness and pleasure have to coincide. Doing good can be painful for oneself (as an example, we don't always like doing the right thing; there can be fear of doing the right thing, or it could cost you more than you'd like, though for Stoics there is a long process to trying to avoid "attachment" to avoid pain and reason eliminates fear), and the idea that we can simply think things through to eliminate fear doesn't work 100% of the time. The problem, I think, is that a lot of (our subject material at least) philosophy centers around trying to achieve a perfect state of being, which is an unrealistic ideal in my opinion. I think that "intrinsic good" is something that can be hard to pin down because so much can be twisted around by the mind, or those with "disorderly souls." Pleasure is certainly easier to twist around than happiness, but happiness for some people who are messed up can be doing messed up things.
ReplyDeleteI think the core of Epicurean philosophy is trying to enjoy life in the present without fear or pleasures that are easily twisted into miserable experiences, and I agree with that to some degree. But avoiding pain entirely I think is futile, and there are far more fulfilling goals than "I never had pain in my own personal life" in my opinion.
To answer your question in a bit of a shorter explanation: if intrinsic good is the pursuit of something for its own sake, and that happiness is fulfilling because it brings "good things" ultimately, then the process of gaining happiness is what I would call into question. Happiness, like anything else, can be turned on its head, and as a FEELING (this is in our definition, not the more traditional definition proposed by our esteemed philosophers), it cannot always be trusted. A Platonic way of looking at it is that the pursuit of feeling leaves out rationale, since your rationale is guided by your desire. You have to control your desire and understand it to properly pursue it without it deluding you into acting selfishly.