Thursday, February 17, 2011

Feb. 16th Discussion Question 2

For utilitarians like Bentham, happiness is simply the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. People are happy insofar as they feel pleasure, unhappy insofar they feel pain; there is nothing else that goes into happiness. Abilities, achievements, friendship, love—all these are, at best, only means to being happy, and only insofar as they give rise to pleasure. How do you feel about this idea? Be sure to give your rationale.
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9 comments:

  1. gillrFebruary 17, 2011 at 3:53 PM

    Well lucky for me that Bentham is not GOD. My God has put in me everything I need to live a victorious happy life. It is up to me to draw it out. I won't let wrong mind-sets, or other people's opinions discourage me. Life is not that simple as black or white...there are too many gray areas to consider. To me, I would not want to be around someone like Bentham and his narrow minded thinking. You can be in pain and still be happy with who you are and how your life is going. There ar too many intangibles that need to be taken into account.
    R. Gill

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  2. cathytFebruary 22, 2011 at 4:14 PM

    So if I take this idea one step further, people are mostly feeling neither pleasure nor pain? So if you are not feeling pleasure or pain – then do you exist? Are the only ideas and feelings in the world all to be rated by pleasure/pain scale?

    I don’t know that much about the Utilitarian philosophy, but it seems too simplistic to me. I don’t think that I care to be a part of a society where the pursuit of pleasure is the driving force.

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  3. sheeheypFebruary 22, 2011 at 4:52 PM

    I disagree. Appreciating abilities, achievements, friendship, and love can provide pleasure. The effect of these in one's life goes far beyond immediate pleasure that may be fleeting and last for only a short time. The others are longer lasting and provide pleasure even in memory.

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  4. Jay SwordsMarch 1, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    We use words like friendship and love most of the time without thinking about what they mean and why we would wish to have them. What Bentham forces us to do is confront these issues; WHY do we consider friendship to be so important to us and HOW does love improve our lives to the point that we're willing to sacrifice ourselves for it's sake. Bentham's argument is that we pursue these things because they give us "pleasure" (in the case of love, a pleasure so intense that we might chose to die then be without it). The trick, according to Bentham, is to figure out what will REALLY gives us pleasure as opposed to what SEEMS LIKE it will give us pleasure.

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  5. Mrs. KroeningMarch 1, 2011 at 4:14 PM

    I looked up the word pleasure: happiness, satisfaction; a source of joy. I feel these sensations when I think of my friends, family and my God. Do they sometimes cause me pain? Yes, but I would never give them up because of it. I don't think they give rise to pleasure. I think they are acutally the source of my pleasure,the reason for my existence.

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  6. ClintMarch 1, 2011 at 5:45 PM

    Utilitarianists want theirs to be the universal philosophy. When the simple democratic equation of majority rule was found lacking, they began to equivocate and introduced 'higher' pleasures as factors to modify the equations outcome. The problem is now finding which are the 'higher' pleasures, the Bart or the Bard (Simpson or Shakespeare). And so the old Nimoy Spock changes into the new millenial Spock.

    Why I believe the utilitarians will miss the mark on finding true goodness is because they are humanists and place human pleasure at the center of their thinking.

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  7. Pam ClemensMarch 1, 2011 at 9:26 PM

    I think of the popularity of yoga and meditation. The complete empyting of the mind of all thoughts to be able to reach a place where there is nothing. A sort of calm is expected. Many people feel refreshed, reinvigorated after a session. Can a sense of "nothing", a cutting of all bonds, then be interpreted as pleasure?

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  8. Ann GMarch 3, 2011 at 4:37 PM

    I cannot comprehend the experience of pain precluding happiness. Working hard, working out, sobbing at a movie or book, childbirth, having the flu and hearing good news, etc., cause physical pain, but happiness is still in one's heart and head. There are so many layers to the meaning of happiness - is it joy? contentment? calm? excitement? pride? And then, because I am a Criminal Minds fan, I think about those for whom others' pain causes them pleasure - but I sure don't think a sociopath or psychopath would say, "Gee, I'm happy now." If the simplicity helps followers of Bentham feel happy - go for it. I like the layers.

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  9. AmandaApril 5, 2011 at 8:54 PM

    I like what Mrs. Kroening said, but since I need to have my own thoughts, here we go... I think there are many means or paths to happiness, just as there are various means of pain. Just because I pursue something that makes me happy or that I think will make me happy does not mean that the end result will be happiness. In contrast, just because I experience pain along the way does not mean that I will not experience the end result of happiness. Happiness is a mindset (think glass is half full). Some people choose to be happy despite the many terrible and horrific things they experience in life. Some people lead great lives, but that does not mean that they are happy.

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