Posted by alexandra_k on March 17, 2005, at 13:29:17
In reply to Re: Happiness, posted by AuntieMel on March 17, 2005, at 12:40:55
Different people seem to have different ideas of happiness...
I guess people started with the thought that happiness was pleasure and the absense of pain but then Mill (and others no doubt) wanted to distinguish between higher and lower pleasures. He thought that if everyone had experienced both then everyone would prefer the higher pleasures.
The particular things he called the higher pleasures are controversial though...
I like the notion that happiness is a state of mind or an attitude that we adopt. In a sense we can be happy in the presence of pain. Though if we think happiness is just pleasure or the absense of pain then we couldn't feel happy when experiencing pain.
Is happiness the only thing we want in itself, though? Do we only want other things because we believe they will make us happier? Or are there other things that are valuable in themselves regardless of whether we think we will be happy because of them?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:471916
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050316/msgs/472080.html