Ha! One could argue a lunatic is happy as he/she has divorced the mind/
memory from the suffering in the world. ("The King of Hearts"-movie)
Hard to believe I once wrote a term paper on Kant's "Critique of Pure
Reason"- what was I thinking? :-)On Sep 2, 3:48 am, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > Kant's description of happiness is, "continuous well-being, enjoyment > of life, complete satisfaction with one's condition." One could also > say it is the enjoyment of all life's pleasures without the pains. He > also states that happiness is ".....the state of a rational being in > the world in the whole of whose existence everything goes according to > his wish and will." I'm thinking that in this sense happiness is > having all your wants fulfilled. Surely the moralistic aspects are > complex and confusing therefore I had put them aside and rather have > put sight into the "duty" of assuring happiness in one's life. > Obvious is the degree to which many suffer from unhappiness. Is it > their failure to recognize a duty to assure happiness in their lives? > Kant's example of the person seeking wealth sets forth a number of > contrapositives, such as "if you have wealth, you are happy", with the > word wealth being replaced by numerous substitutions. > Kant states, "The problem of determining surely and universally which > action would promote the happiness of a rational being is completely > insoluble." That would be true because "happiness is not an ideal of > reason but of imagination." I would think this makes it highly > subjective. This also leads me to believe that it isn't possible for > everyone to make decisions and choices that ultimately lead to > happiness. Kant adds, "The more a cultivated reason purposely > occupies itself with the enjoyment of life and with happiness, so much > the further does one get away from true satisfaction." That we have > our own individual will and the ability of individual choice obviously > can lead us away from happiness, if it were all instinctive then we'd > all automatically be happy. Therefore we get back to the duty of > assuring happiness in our lives. Should we begin each day with a quest > for happiness, live with intent to secure happiness in our lives? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
