Happiness

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• Happiness
• Dr Timothy OLeary

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Abd Er-Rahman III (Muslim ruler of Spain 912-961
AD)

• I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or
  peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my
  enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and
  honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my
  call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to
  have been wanting to my felicity.
• In this situation, I have diligently numbered
  the days of pure and genuine happiness which have
  fallen to my lot.
• They amount to fourteen.

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Heinrich Heine, German poet, 1797-1856

• "Mine is a most peaceable disposition. My wishes
  are a humble cottage with a thatched roof, but a
  good bed, good food, the freshest milk and
  butter, flowers before my window, and a few fine
  trees before my door
• and if God wants to make my happiness complete,
• He will grant me the joy of seeing some six or
  seven of my enemies hanging from those trees."

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Albert Camus, French writer, 1913-1960

• You will never be happy if you continue to search
  for what happiness consists of. You will never
  live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

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Hong Kong, 2005

• Happy Hour 5-7pm
• Drinks 2 for 1

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What is Happiness?

• Is it a feeling, a psychological state, a mood,
  something that could occur just 14 days in the
  course of a life?
• Is it something that could be complete for
  example, if God were to hang our enemies in front
  of us?
• Is it something that cannot be found through
  searching? Then how do we achieve it?
• Through drugs, through alcohol?

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Happiness, Chance, Luck

• The English word happiness derives from the word
  hap which means (good) chance or fortune.
• The French word bonheur literally means good
  hour (time).
• One of the German words for happiness glück
  also conveys the idea of good luck, chance.

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• Is happiness just a matter of chance, good
  fortune, then? A matter of being in the right
  place at the right time?
• Is there nothing we can do to achieve it?
• And, once again, what is it?!

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• Lets look at another word for happiness the
  ancient Greek word
• Eudaimonia
• Lit. good spirit, blessed, doing well,
  living well.

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• Ancient Greek philosophers had a great deal to
  say about eudaimonia about what it is and how
  we can achieve it.
• I want to look here at Aristotles approach to
  eudaimonia.

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Aristotle (384-322 BC)

• He wrote a book called The Nicomachean Ethics, in
  which he situates happiness (eudaimonia) as the
  goal of human life, and as the outcome of ethical
  activity.
• In this book he speaks about eudaimonia and eu
  zen (living well) as the thing all human beings
  aim for.

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Aristotles eudaimonistic Ethics

• The basic building blocks of Aristotles ethics
  are
• Every activity has an end an aim, a final goal.
  The final cause, or end is the highest level of
  cause. So, every purposive activity has a purpose
  for example you set your alarm clock for 7am
• There is a hierarchy of ends or aims but we
  call that at which all things aim the good.

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Final End

• So, if all our actions aim at ends, and we can
  hierarchise these ends, then what is the final
  end for which we aim in our active lives?
• It is happiness (eudaimonia). We know this is the
  absolute good for human life because it is final
  and self-sufficient we do not seek it for any
  other reason, but for its own sake.

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Definition

• But what is happiness?
• Aristotles preliminary definition Happiness is
  an activity of the soul in accordance with
  virtue.
• Note this definition, with its emphasis on
  activity, relates to the lecture by Dr Ci on
  nihilism, powerlessness, and happiness.

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Function

• To explain this we need to address the question
  of the proper function of man as such. For
  Aristotle function is a crucial explanatory
  device.
• To know our function we must examine our nature
  what is it?

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• Our defining feature, vis-à-vis other life forms
  is reason and action. That is, unique among
  animals, we engage in purposive, rational
  activity.
• So, if we say that the purpose/function of a
  scissors is to cut, the purpose/function of a
  good scissors is to cut well/excellently.

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• And, therefore, the purpose/function of a human
  being is to engage well in purposive, rational
  activity.
• Hence the definition weve just seen
• Happiness is an activity of the soul in
  accordance with virtue.

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• BUT we must also know what Aristotle means by
  soul.
• For the ancient Greeks, the soul is primarily a
  way of explaining the difference between animate
  and inanimate things. Plants, animals and humans
  are infused with a certain principle that makes
  them alive psuche, soul (psyche).

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• The major division within the human soul is
  between the rational part and the non-rational
  part. But the non-rational part has a
  sub-division which is capable of following
  reasons orders (although it does not do so in
  the incontinent, or intemperate, person).

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• For Aristotle, the way you bring a soul to act
  well is through practice, habit, or VIRTUE. In
  other words, we need to TRAIN our souls to act
  well.
• The Greek word which we translate as virtue is
  arete, which literally means excellence.
• So, Aristotles ethics focuses on what is that
  makes a person (and their life) excellent as an
  example of human activity.

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• Lets look now in more detail at
• The role of pleasure
• The Virtues (excellences)
• The Mean and moral training

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The Role of Pleasure

• The question of pleasure is a very important one
  in Greek (and later) thought about ethics and
  about happiness.
• What is the proper place of pleasure in the
  good/just/happy life?

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• Aristotles approach to this question is the very
  commonsense one that pleasure is a necessary
  component of the good or happy life but it is
  not the final aim or goal of human life.
• He would disagree with hedonists, epicureans, and
  many modern people, who believe that pleasure is
  the highest good in human life the source of
  happiness.

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• Pleasure the good, justice, etc are inherently
  pleasurable the good man finds them
  pleasurable.
• BUT, we need to work on ourselves in order to
  find the good/just pleasurable. Human beings
  dont automatically find the good to be
  pleasurable.

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• AND, of course, some external goods, or
  pleasures, are also necessary for full happiness
  (eudaimonia) for you cannot quite regard a man
  as happy if he be very ugly to look at, or of
  humble origin, or alone in the world and
  childless (p.43).
• So, virtue (excellence) is not sufficient in
  itself to make a human being happy.

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• Aristotles definition of the happy person
• one whose activities accord with complete
  virtue, with an adequate supply of external
  goods, not just for any time but for a complete
  lifeand who will also go on living this way
  and will come to an appropriate end.
• Note Aristotle would say that Abd Er-Rahman III
  had misunderstood the nature of happiness.

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Virtue

• We call this goodness of action virtue
  (arete/excellence).
• And, following the division of the soul, human
  beings are capable of two kinds of virtue
  intellectual (relating to the rational part) and
  moral (relating to the non-rational part).

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• Intellectual virtues are taught moral virtues
  are cultivated the product of habit (ethos).
• For this introduction well just look quickly at
  the moral virtues.

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Moral Virtues

• The moral virtues are not implanted in us by
  nature but neither are their opposites. And
  unlike sight, for eg., which we have before we
  use it, in the case of moral virtues we acquire
  them by exercising them. In the same way as
  craftsmen learn their craft through practice.
• A state of character results from the
  repetition of similar activities. So actions
  precede dispositions.
• But how do we acquire these virtues?

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The Mean

• The answer is by acting according to a mean
  between deficiency and excess.
• Just as health is destroyed by too much (eg food)
  or too little (eg food, exercise), so it is with
  the moral virtues.

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• So, what is virtue (arete, excellence)?
• Virtue is a disposition a disposition which
  enables the good man to perform his function
  well. And we do that when we avoid excess and
  deficiency, when we achieve the mean in our
  actions and our feelings.

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• What is the mean? It is not the arithmetical
  mean. It is not the mean of the thing but the
  relative mean.
• Eg., fear, anger, pity can be experienced and
  acted upon to excess or to deficiency.
• But to have these feelings at the right times on
  the right occasions towards the right people for
  the right motive and in the right way is to have
  them in the right measure, that is, somewhere
  between the extremes and this is what
  characterises goodness. Bk.2, Ch.6, Sect.10-12

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• We may now define virtue as a disposition of the
  soul in which, when it has to choose among
  actions and feelings, it observes the mean
  relative to us, this being determined by such a
  rule or principle as would take shape in the mind
  of a man of sense or practical wisdom .

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• Examples of some (Greek) virtues (of character)
• Courage Temperance Generosity Truthfulness
  Friendliness Modesty.
• These are all acquired through good habit.
• And, when combined with the intellectual virtues
  (knowledge, practical wisdom, etc), they lead to
  a life of eudaimonia well-being, or well-doing.

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• We call the person who achieves this life happy
  (eudaimon) and virtuous (excellent).
• The point of ethics and philosophy is to
  achieve this goal.

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• Further Reading
• This article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of
  Philosophy will be useful esp. Section 2.
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethic
  s/2