As promised, a prompt for our continued discussion principally on this idea that perhaps the pursuit of the good life (or a happy one) could in some way preclude us from attaining it. In other words, in general terms, can happiness be meaningfully pursued, or is it or should it instead be a byproduct or fruit of something else, of some other pursuit?
In thinking towards our first reading, might not the search for happiness entail its own undoing? Might the modern commandment to, “Be happy!” produce its own form of discontent?
And I’m deeply interested in your ideas about happiness as a sort of “right” or entitlement. Do you believe that we have a “right” to happiness? Why or why not?
Finally, in response to the Truman Show, what role does free will play in the pursuit of a good life? In other words, how authentically lived must a life be in order to be deemed “good” or, to use some good terms brought up today, “noble” or “honorable”? (Ooh, this is a good one.)
Please post a comment in response to these questions and to your classmates’ ponderings here no later than midnight Monday, Jan. 16 (so I have a chance to read them before class the next day).
I would not say that actively pursuing the good life would exclude you from attaining it. Although, it does depend on the degree on which you pursue your good life. The best analogy i can think of is a road trip. Say you have looked at your position and personality and know what will make you lead the best life, going to New York (or you could skip that step and get in your car and drive off aimlessly to find the good life. In which case you may make it, or you may not). So, you look at a map and see that it is north. you could drive north, or not to pursue it to directly, so you don’t ruin the experience, you drive south and hope you have fun along the way (you may make it, or you may not). Say you went north, there is again two options. one to drive on a strict schedule (like bus rides, which are not very fun), or you could take detours and enjoy the trip. In both options you make it to New York, your good life, but in one the misery of the trip may leave a sour taste in you mouth and ruin New York for you. This also goes back to the vegetable dilemma. If you plan ahead and know that vegetables are better for you than you favorite food, you may think that vegetables are all that you can eat. On the other hand, if you eat a lot of vegetables and some of you favorite food that will make you life a lot more enjoyable and better in the long run. So in conclusion I say know where you are going to start living the good life, but don’t sweat the short term stuff. On the long term choices, weigh your options and decide which one brings you closer to the good life, but also live in the moment and enjoy yourself because you can never go back.
First, I agree with Adam’s road trip analogy in response to whether or not the pursuit of the/a good life stops us from obtaining it.
In regard to happiness as a right, I believe that we are entitled to the *opportunity* to be happy rather than the right to be happy. I believe this because it always seems impossible for everyone to be happy at once, due to various different things making people happy. If happiness were a universal right, inevitably someone’s right to happiness would be violated in the process of another’s gain of happiness. For example, let’s say that in order for me to be happy I want to buy a certain house, but buying that same house is what would make another person happy as well. Therefore, if we had the right to be happy, one of us would have our right violated. If instead we had a right to the opportunity to be happy, then we both would have our right in tact.
I suppose I would agree with the road trip analogy in the respect that it is not wrong to have a certain idea of how a “good life” is defined for ourselves. I do not think it is inherently bad to set goals or to have dreams of a “good life.” Where is problem comes, however, is in the definition of “pursuit.” To me, pursuit implies a willful search, one that takes precedence or priority over other interests. With this definition, I would argue that the pursuit of a good life makes it ultimately impossible to attain it. By setting out simply to have a “good life,” we are focusing on attaining that life instead of the things that may ultimately make it up.
I would also like to mention the Christian idea that in order to gain life, we must lose it. By giving up our lives, we are in exchange finding them. Religious aspects aside, I think of men like Ghandi and Nelson Mandela who represent this concept well. I would argue that very few people would be choice take up the life that Ghandi led- he went through very long periods of fasting, lived with the bare minimum of material goods, and was eventually assassinated. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, sacrificing the saftey and well-being of his family for his cause. Yet I believe that both of these men would say that their had good lives. Although perhaps they did not have what many of us would consider ingredients of a good life such as family, comfort, or even safety, they accomplished far more than the average.
Perhaps by giving up our pursuit of the good life, we may in the end gain it.
Because I feel that I’ve written perhaps too much on that topic, I’ll skip down to address whether or not happiness is a right. I do not think that it is a right by any means. Whether or not the actual pursuit is a right is a different debate altogether, but happiness alone is not a right. I think that it is a Western idea that we deserve to be happy, which is seen prominently in our culture. In America, we marry for happiness; this is not the case in many parts of the world. I believe that happiness is a privilege that should not be taken for granted. In my own experience, the tendency of Americans to classify happiness as a right has resulted in overwhelming amounts of materialism and greed.
When happiness is viewed as a privilege and not a right, the priority is not to achieve happiness but instead to hope for happiness despite a current situation. This is why I also don’t equate a “good life” with happiness. I think that true happiness is being content or satisfied even when things are not good at all. Even in situations such as Ghandi and Mandela- when the current state is in fact quite bleak, true happiness is the ability to see the larger picture and the ultimate purpose in our actions and to rest in that.
After looking over the readings and my discussion notes, I am still stuck on the topic of happiness. I honestly think that one’s outlook on life can cause happiness or a life of regret and suffering. Even if everything does not go your way, or just because you come from a poor family does not mean you necessarily have to accept those circumstances you have be given. I think that optimism leads to more passion in life, and thus a better end result of whatever one tries to accomplish, so in that case I think it can be meaningfully pursued. Still, if someone manages to accomplish all of their goals, it seems to me that it could also lead to their happiness of self fulfillment. However, the first reading of the “History of Happiness” discussed of some things that I personally disagreed with and here is a quote from it:
“Where life is governed by uncertainty, no one can count no man happy until he is dead.”
I believe that if we follow this statement, today, then all that we would be left with is discontent. What’s the point of living, if your life/your happiness won’t count or be determined until your death? This also brings up a point that was made our last class. Someone stated the difference in the class’s title of being called “THE good live” vs “A good life”. I think that because each individual has a separate standard for their own happiness and way of living, there cannot be a “A” perfect standard for living. Yes, in life we’re governed by the uncertain but happiness IS attainable. It’s determined by that individual and what they make of the life they have. Everyone is entitled to some form of happiness at least once in their life because we are not born with the chance to determine the kind of life we do have. We do not get to choose where we are born, the type of family, wealth, skin color, or our level of intelligence, to say the least. We all can attain, in some form, happiness.
Finally, in response to the Truman Show and the pursuit of a good life, I feel that although our birth is out of our hands or the fact that our lives are somewhat predestined, we all have free will to chose where we go in life and what we will do with all that we’ve been given. However, I would say that to deem a life as “good”, the person would have to live their life to the fullest and reach their full potential.
For whether or not a good life should be pursued or simply be a byproduct of something else, I feel as though the best approach is a combination of the two. I believe humans should hold goals and strive to accomplish certain milestones on an individual basis but accomplishing these goals should not be the sole determinant of whether we lived a good or happy life. As suggested in “A History of Happiness”, fate determines much of our lives, so whether or not we accomplish our goal quite possibly could be out of our own control. Therefore, I feel like a happy, good, meaningful life should actively be sought, but the pursuer should expect to change his/her plan along the way (as Adam suggested) and find a good life in whatever fate decides to make their own.
Along with the need to be flexible in the purusit of a good life, I feel in some instances the search for happiness could effectively cause us to be unhappy. For example, if someone had a very fixed impression of what a good life looks like and continues to be unable to attain whatever that goal or impression of a good life is, then yes, I would say the quest for a good life could lead to greater unhappiness. Happiness depends upon one’s personality and how they deal with failure and change.
In accordance with Brooke’s thoughts, I do not believe that we have an inherent right entitling us to it. At least happiness cannot always be presented to us in the exact way that we desire it or at the exact time we want it. For instance, in all contests in life, there is only one winner. Not everyone can win, and if everyone were to win, no one would be happy with that either for there would be no glory or honor in the title. However, I do believe we have a right to freely seek whatever it is we consider to constitue a good life and to actively continue the pursuit our entire lives through, even if it is deviant to how the normal “good” life is viewed.
Lastly, I thought it was interesting you placed the words honorable and noble in the question about the Truman show. In class the other day, the discussion seemed to lead to the conclusion that being considered noble or honorable by peers, society members, or future generations meant that you were living or had lived a good life. I think for this conclusion, we must determine who is deciding whether a life was good or not. Those outside an individual’s life may feel it was a good life, reaching this conclusion due to brave acts of heroism or great leadership demonstrated by that individual throughout their life (things we normally label as noble and honorable). However, just because others see that life as good, the individual themselves may not conclude that their life is or was good. In the case of Truman, some may argue that Truman lived a sort of honorable or noble life. It was certainly unique, and he did provide entertainment for millions of people while sacrficing many aspects of his own life (whether he was aware of it or not), but I believe that if Truman had been asked if he had lived a good life, his reply would have undoubtedly been, “No”. Therefore, I am not certain we can always consider nobility or honor to be part of a good life.
In response to MacMahon’s question, if the goal of happiness becomes our only goal I think it is sure that we won’t find it. We as humans are very fickle. We may find one thing that makes us happy, but soon grow tired of it and become unhappy again so we move on to something else. The same thing often happens in marriages today – we get married and for a while are happy, but as soon as we become bored or unhappy we end the marriage and find someone else who makes us happy. In these situations, our own happiness has become our pursuit in life to the exclusion of everything else and we can never really find the soul-satisfying happiness we all crave because we’re always trying to find something that will be better or make us happier.
It is important to have goals and to know the things that we enjoy and make us happy but I don’t think that happiness should be our main goal. For me, happiness is a byproduct of the pursuit of Jesus. A life lived trusting God and preparing the way for His kingdom is what I would call the good life. That doesn’t mean that I am comfortable all of the time or that I don’t feel hurt or see brokenness in the world but it does bring me joy because I can see the big picture and I am content knowing my purpose in it. Sometimes the things that make my life a good life are not necessarily things that make me really happy (at least in the short-term perspective). For example, loving people that are hard to love doesn’t thrill me but it is good for me because I learn to be patient and kind and to love like we’re called to love (which does make me happy in the long-run).
I also think that happiness can be learned. It’s a lot like children learning to be afraid of spiders because they see their mothers fear them. Happiness is the same way – we watch the way our parents live their lives and if they are content with what they have then we too can learn to be content with what we have and do. If they are constantly chasing after the next thing that can make them happy, we’re likely to do the same thing. We can also learn happiness by looking at the examples of people like Gandhi and Mandela who were happy despite their circumstances.
We should not measure our lives by how good other people think they were or how many heroic or noble acts they think we did. What matters is how we think our lives are – whether or not we feel we’ve done all that we were meant to, if we’ve fully lived, and if we’ve found joy and meaning in existence.
I think that actively pursuing happiness or a good life as our primary goals is futile and self-defeating. A good life is a by-product of a life committed to something worth more than myself. As far as I am concerned, a good life can only be achieved by, among other things, loving and serving others and living a self-sacrificial life. If my primary goal were to please myself, then I would be extremely selfish and therefore not capable of living a truly good life. I don’t think that a good life and happiness are synonymous, but constantly pursuing happiness is at the same time not a good life, and not personally satisfying. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said of his pursuit of pleasure:
“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward of my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
Solomon discovered that personal pleasure is not truly satisfying. Also, if we look at the word “happiness” it doesn’t make sense to try and make it our life-long goal. “Happy” is related to “happen/happening” meaning that it has to do with what is currently happening to us. We cannot feasibly be happy all of the time because it is too affected by our immediate circumstances, which often involve things outside our control.
I think Chelsea was right in using two words I haven’t heard much in our discussions yet: joy and contentment. Joy is not simply another word for happiness, but is in fact something entirely different. Contentment is joy despite imperfect circumstances.
In response to the Truman Show, I think it is very possible to live a good life even when it lacks some authenticity. Take the story of Jean Valjean in Les MIsérables. After his release from prison, Valjean changes his name and spends most of the rest of his life hiding his true identity. He was not completely honest with anyone until he was on his deathbed, and yet he was unfailing generous, compassionate, pious, affectionate and selfless and had the reputation of a truly good man. Does the lack of authenticity negate the goodness of rest of his life? I don’t think it does.
As I am reading all of these blog posts, a lot is going through my mind. But one thought in particular keeps reoccurring in my mind, and that is my belief that the pursuit itself, or in other words the journey, is what counts in my opinion as determining a good or happy life. As Abby mentioned before the word “happiness” refers to what is happening in the moment; therefore, it is not necessarily the result that really matters in a good life, but it is how well the journey was spent to get there. Going back to Adam’s analogy of the road trip, there are various ways to get from point A to point B; however, certain ways may benefit you and others more. In other words, in order to live a good and happy life, one must enjoy and make the most out of every moment in his or her life. He or she should try and live each moment to the fullest in order to gain happiness and goodness. And as mentioned before, happiness may not be an immediate result; there is bound to be times of sadness and anger along one’s journey through life. However, these moments are what only add to the happiness; they are what make people understand and appreciate happiness. Furthermore, they allow people to grow and learn from their mistakes in order to fix the problems in their life to achieve goodness. Most likely fixing one’s mistakes will help one to make a positive difference in others’ lives as well, which only adds to “a good life”. Therefore, I do not think that the pursuit takes away from a good and happy life, but rather it is what helps to define a good and happy life.
And yes, I think we all have a right to happiness; however, the degree of happiness will vary from person to person. Furthermore as I mentioned before, I do not think one deserves or needs to be happy all of the time in order to achieve a good life because the unpleasant instances in life only help us grow in the long run and pursuing a good life cannot be totally happy because like Chelsea said, we are going to have to make sacrifices in order to better ourselves, help others, and serve God.
Lastly, authenticity in a good life is a tricky matter because some lies are actually better than telling the truth because they cause less chaos. For instance, if I were to tell my friend that I thought her shirt was ugly, because that’s truly what I thought, telling the truth would obviously do more bad than good. Therefore, it is sometimes better to just not say anything than tell the truth, given the circumstance. However, it is only better to an extent because if a life is full of more lies than truths, then at some point I think they would cancel out because of how much the lies could hurt another when discovered. Overall, I think authenticity in a good life really depends on the situation.
To link our key words in a circle even more entrenched in syntax, I would have to agree that merely searching for happiness can cause it to elude us, and that happiness may be an outcome of the pursuit of “the good life.” Simply chasing happiness is a selfish endeavor and one unworthy of a lifelong investment. However, if we have priorities above ourselves, and if we live for something greater than transitory enjoyment or contentment, I believe happiness will come naturally. To use a few hackneyed phrases, it is like the satisfaction of a job well done or a service rendered for someone else. I think that if we pursue a “good life,” we have a better chance at happiness by focusing our perspective elsewhere and not on ourselves.
I don’t entirely support the notion of a right to happiness. While I want to, while it would be nice to demand happiness from an outside force, I think that mindset leaves too much room for being bitter and jaded. I hope to take a more active responsibility for my life. I can’t expect anyone or anything to make me happy.
Free will is an essential aspect of happiness. I think humans are wired to yearn for choice and options. If something beneficial is forced upon us, we are prone to dislike it simply because we could not control it. I can say that for myself, at least. It can be an unfortunate tendency, but it can also ensure that we make our own lives. Because of this, we may not acheive a “good life,” but we do acheive what we choose.
As I am sitting here on my couch, the movie “The Adjustment Bureau” is on the TV. It is a movie that concerns free will and a final plan written by a “Chairman” and carried out by bureau members. One man, Matt Damon, is destined to be an incredible President of the United States. One day, he runs into a girl named Elise who is an incredible dancer. They have an instant connection and she inspires him to give an incredible speech, but he is never supposed to see her again. Except for that he does. From that point on, Damon battles between his desire to be with Elise and knowing that doing so would be giving up his dreams of Presidency and Elise’s of dancing. The Bureau tells him that if the two of them were to get together, it would be “enough,” and they would no longer feel the need to pursue their dreams. And so the Bureau does everything they can to get in their way.
I feel like this movie is a good example of the complexity that our question entails. I think that many of us would agree that a successful Presidency or the being a professional dancer are rather good lives. But would Damon and Elise be happy? They would have to live their entire lives without the ones that they love. But then again, living with each other and giving up their dreams may be, for them, a good life. And certainly they did everything in their power to “pursue” it, rather than wait for their happiness to come to them. If they had simply sat back and waited, the good life would have certainly come to them (President of the United States and professional dancing), but their love might never have been given a chance, and that is the thing that makes them truly happy.
While I agree that actively seeking out happiness can sometimes lead to selfish endeavors that leave the person less happy than before, I think that simply sitting back and waiting for happiness to fall out of the sky might not be the best answer either. We have to take a role in our own happiness. But there are limitations. We must be careful not to step on the toes of our neighbors and peers, which is why we cannot all lead “perfect” lives. Someone who is very selfish and doesn’t actually care about anyone else may have the ability to seek out the perfect life for his or herself, but due to the selfish nature of everyone other person and their desire to be happy as well, other people will likely not be very willing to make the necessary sacrifices for that selfish person unless he has some kind of power over everyone, like an authoritarian king. Basically, I believe that once we figure out what makes us happy (a discovery that might indeed fall out of the sky by chance), it is up to us to actively pursue a life filled with those things that bring us joy.
I believe that true happiness is not necessarily something that can be pursued. In this aspect, I feel that there is no definite way to actually strive to attain it. Instead, I think that one may have a vague idea of what can lead to happiness, but becoming too absorbed in the journey to find happiness will prevent one from actually obtaining it. Therefore, in my opinion, happiness can be reached by living life to the fullest, and not worrying too much about finding happiness. To put it simply, happiness will find you, not the other way around.
Also, I agree with the belief of Solon, from the McMahon excerpt, that happiness can only be fully realized at the conclusion of a life. From my own personal experiences, I have found that you never know what is around the corner in life. This theme was also present in the McMahon excerpt, in that Croesus believed he was the “happiest man in the world,” but circumstances that arose after his statement, such as the death of his son, proved otherwise. Therefore, one can experience pleasures in life, but happiness is a compilation of these pleasures that is only obtainable at the end of a life.
Finally, I think that free will must not necessarily be present for one to experience a good life, rather, the illusion of free will must be present. If an individual believes they have a choice in their actions, they will be able to obtain happiness on their own terms, even if they are actually controlled by something, or someone, above their own power. However, if the person knows they are being controlled, and they ultimately have no way of choosing their own path, this person will not be able to truly experience a good life, as they will feel that they never actually accomplished anything on their own, which I feel is necessary for a good life.
Our experience in this world is rather ugly and gross. There’s a lot of death, hunger, heartbreak, bad music, homework, grey hair, poverty, and etc. The thing that strikes me as entirely odd and almost inexplicable is that, though we do not know of any life without those inconveniences, we still look for something called “happiness”. It seems like a stupid thing to say; how could we be happy in a world of war and Justin Bieber singles? But we have never experienced a world without pain. Logically we have no frame of reference for anything better; we have no reason to assume that there is a better thing or a more beautiful world. To lament death and taxes and all that is like being sad that we didn’t evolve into gaseous beings or green people. We don’t know a world better than this one, but this one makes us miserable.
That is why we all look for something to make us happy. Religion X is supposed to cure the evils of this life. If we make X number of dollars, we’re supposed to be happy. Attractive Mate X will validate us and fill us with euphoria. Loud music and flashing lights are all we need for genuine happiness. Art is the only true happiness. These are the kinds of things that humans grasp at in our search for something better. General dissatisfaction and a strive for more is, I think, a universal human condition. We’re all unhappy, so we look for something that makes us unhappy.
The idea that pursuing a good life negates the obtaining of a good life, if true, will inject an immensity of melancholy into our course. Everyone is seeking happiness, and if in seeking we cut ourselves off from it, life will inevitably suck. I don’t think we can not seek happiness in a certain sense. We can’t not look for our own self-interest. That’s why Jesus said, “love your neighbor like you love yourself”. Because the only selflessness comes, not from disinterested affection (I’m almost convinced that doesn’t exist), but by valuing another as critical to our own, so to say, happiness. So my suggestion is that it is not at all possible to avoid pursuing the good life. I don’t mean to make us all out to be selfish; I only mean that to pursue something “other that” our happiness is to make our happiness contingent on that “other” thing. Even in the Christian tradition, God (as the ultimate source of selflessness) saves humanity for his sake, because they/we make him happy.
I think that the active, conscious pursuit of happiness would preclude the attainment of it. It would be illogical to say that we do not all search for happiness because humans are programmed to want happiness or at least to not want pain, sadness, etc., but the active pursuit of personal happiness would lead to selfishness. Also, happiness is not a measurable goal, so it would be impossible to know if you have reached it. Since it is not measurable, people would continue to pursue it and never be content with the amount of happiness in their lives. So if we are programmed to want happiness but should not make it our main goal, there must be a higher pursuit whose biproduct would be happiness. Otherwise, pain and suffering would be pointless and detract substantially from our goal of happiness.
I do not believe that we have a “right” to happiness. It is something that must be discovered through our higher pursuits. Obviously, I believe that everyone has the right to search for happiness. It would be difficult to guarantee someone happiness because of the varying definitions of happiness. For some, happiness would be defined by material possessions, while for others it could mean inner happiness as a result of good works.
Free will plays a huge role in attaining happiness. Because of the varying definitions of happiness, each person should have a role in acquiring his or her own version of happiness. Without free will, nothing we do could be considered noble because we would be forced to do it.
Dear other members of this class:
I love reading all the blog posts, and discussing in class with all of you. The sincerity and engagement here is amazing.
Here’s my contribution to the conversation. Unfortunately it returns to something we’ve already picked to pieces quite a bit, but as it’s relevant, I’ll address the issue of distinguishing “good” from “happy” as what we look for in life.
The question posed in this blog post was “Does the search for happiness entail its own undoing?” I believe, using those words, yes it can. This notion we have that ultimate happiness (our personal idea of perfection, if you will) is attainable and should be sought after in order to make the best use of the time we are given can only lead to disappointment. As Micah has said, how can we ever find perfection in this imperfect world? As Chelsea brought up, how can prioritizing our own satisfaction above anyone else’s be making the best use of our time, when that’s inherently selfish? And wouldn’t we be destined to fail, if our goal was to be completely ‘happy’ 100% of the time? Obviously we are going to encounter pain, sadness, and anger. Seeing a human life as a pursuit of happiness above all else is, ironically, a depressing thought.
However, considering the achievement of a “good life” is a different matter. I would venture to say that if one spent a lifetime pursuing goodness, they would have succeeded in finding it. After all, if your idea of goodness is being honest and selfless, and you constantly work to make sure you are those things, then aren’t you living your good life? In this way, ‘good’ is very different from ‘happy.’ Whereas the pursuit of HAPPINESS can keep you from finding it, the pursuit of GOODNESS actually ensures that you will.
One thing I got from the article by McMahon that I think ties in well is this point: There is a difference between what we want to *accomplish* and what we want to *attain.* Accomplishment would be the goal in our search for a good life; attainment relates more to whether we think we’ve found happiness or not.
The question of whether happiness is our right or not…I’ll try to keep this short… Saying happiness is a right implies (like Erin said) that we expect some outside force to provide it for us. Disagree. However, I DO think that the right to PURSUE happiness should be afforded to everyone. Whether that be spiritually, intellectually, materially, emotionally… However we define it, I think all humans should have the right to try improving their situations and themselves.
Deadline has passed. Thanks to all for your comments.