Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Bullshitting on Happiness

I woke up at about 11am.

I finished a paper and passed out last night. Damn, I hate when I sleep in. I seem to keep messing stuff up with school. Ah, my profs are cool though. I think everything will be okay.

I turned in a shitty paper. That is one thing I hate doing as a perfectionist in that area... But I did it last night.

Oh well, why am I writing here.

Hmm...

I am still sleepy....

Bullshitting on Happiness for a day in writing takes alot out of you. Though I'm more of a fan of Aquinas's understanding of Happiness rather than Aristotle's. Here it is:

You live this life according to prudence and wisdom and 'all that' and then you realize that you are going to die. According to Aristotle that is when you have that Happiness... When you die. I think that would depress me more than make me happy. Where is the Happiness? Is it what you leave behind? Well, what reason would the dieing care to leave anything behind. All relations are dependent on self-love. Ultimatly, to Aristotle, you will never even have any friendship that is not for your own benifit. What benifit could they give as you pass into nothingness? It seems that the dieing man would be very selfish in that sense. Doing anything for the community would mean nothing to you when you pass into non-existence. It isn't like the memory of you would live on much longer anyway... Unless we are talking of Aristotle or Socrates here. The point is, all you have is that moment of seeing nothing but the past (since there is no future) and then you pass on. Maybe it is that you think of how damned cool you are that second...

I don't know. It seems to me that once 'hope' disappears then there will be nothing to give Happiness. That is why I love Aristotle, but I think that Aquinas kicks ass. In that moment of death you may still have that moment of reflection, but even at that you still have the hope of moving on. Doesn't that make more sense?

Or can Happiness be in a moment without the existence of hope? The Christian side of me hates that idea. It seems to me that a person would die in dispare...

Man, this is fun! I love writing philosophy so informally! I don't even have to give a shit about my spelling:)

I think that my profs would be annoyed with me if I wrote in that way:

"So this is why Thomas is cooler than Aristotle..."

Yeah, I've wasted enough time.

Later people!

7 comments:

Jessica said...

Well, I've almost died a lot and I wasn't a bit f-ing happy any of the times. In psychology we definately learn that we are only in relationships(friendships etc..) for our own benefit.

Reason being that we all benefit from relationships because they fulfill a social and emotional need in us. Supposedly if our costs outweigh our benefits this leads the ending of these relationships. Social Exchange Theory...

Jessica said...

All the times I lay in the hospital about to die I didn't feel happy nor did I reflect on a one f-ing thing. I didn't feel sad or scared either. Just weird.
I've felt the happiest when dealing with passionate love and intimate love(triangluar theory i know)Other people make me happiest!

nixonreed said...

Philosophy is nothing more than one guy's opinion about things. I myself believe happiness is a cheap reward if you don't set the price too high. If you don't expect too much a fart could seem like a tiny nugget of pure gold. So, philosophy is what you take it. You like those who match you better and dislike those who are farther away. Which is why I refuse to read it. I do know this, the chicken came before the egg because someone had to give a squat.

Jessica said...

I too do not read much philosophy.
It's not hard to understand, I just choose not to.

joe said...

Anybody ever read anything by Anselm?

If you haven't, you should!

el said...

Well, I didn't expect comments on this one.

The idea of Happiness that Aristotle writes on is one of an old man dying in his death bed... One who has had lived a long life. To Aristotle, to die young is not to die happy... You did not live through enough to gain Happiness.

To Aquinas, you have nothing without the love of God. The Beatific vision! That is Happiness:)

Anyway, I will state that philosophy is not for all. I mostly have a preference for political philosophy and theology... It is what I love:) I think it originated from my love of history and developed into reading past philosophers' writings on human nature... Well, that is mostly what it is. No need for excuses:)

Enough on that for now.

el said...

I hadn't read Anselm. I'll have to look at that.