Chapter 7 six happy

Pleasure is better than suffering. When dealing with life problems and deciding on trade-offs, this seems to be a principle that does not need to be proved.It is also difficult to prove, because it comes from personal feelings, it is born this way, it has always been like this, or only God knows why. In the past, the study of philosophy in China focused on practice, preaching, and morality. The relationship between virtue and happiness was not much discussed.Western lecturers like to ask about the essence of virtue. In ancient times, there were so-called hedonists who advocated that the true meaning of life is nothing but seeking pleasure.The Bentham school in modern times regards the "quantity" of happiness as the standard of virtue, and therefore maintains that the behavior that can make the greatest number of people obtain the greatest happiness is the best behavior (goodness).Is it possible to regard happiness as the greatest value of life and conduct yourself in the world based on this principle?This issue is quite complex and requires analysis.

Happiness is a well-known feeling, but it is difficult to define.It is a phenomenon in life activities, manifested as a state of psychology, manifested as a state of physiology, and can be explained from the perspectives of psychology and physiology; it is more difficult to explain it in everyday terms, because no matter what it is said It is a comfortable feeling, too.Whether it is the emotion of joy, it is actually equivalent to saying that happiness is happiness.I want to avoid the problem of definition here, because it is well-known to people, so we might as well make use of this familiarity, just to say that happiness is the feeling that people desire and like to experience for a period of time.

Wishing is the desire of "a certain person", and experience is the experience of "a certain person". In other words, happiness is the specific feeling of a specific person.Hedonists regard this specific feeling as the value of life, so happiness becomes the final basis of virtue.Treating pleasure as a value, whether it is intentional or unintentional, cannot be different from the Bentham school, and also recognizes a principle of "quantity", that is: small pleasures are small values, and great pleasures are large values; behaviors that can produce small values It is a small virtue, and the behavior that can produce great value is a great virtue.

Is this right?The reasoning is generally reasonable, but not entirely correct, because if this is the highest principle for determining behavior and everything is handled accordingly, sometimes difficulties will be encountered.First, as is well known in common sense, some happiness is real as a feeling for a period of time, but the result will be suffering. Such happiness is obviously not suitable for desire.Second, whether it is ordinary people or moral philosophers, some kind of pleasure-seeking is regarded as worthless or even humble behavior, which shows that the value of behavior cannot be determined simply by whether it can produce a period of happiness.Third, some behaviors have little to do with happiness, or often cause suffering, but they have to be done, and everyone even feels obliged to do it. It can be seen that, at least sometimes, the criterion for determining behavior is not all happiness, but both There is something else.

Naturally, in this kind of place, hedonists can use a "sensible" principle to explain, that is, some behaviors can produce happiness but are not suitable for doing, or can't produce happiness but are suitable for children to do, because changing the way, instead A greater amount of fun can be obtained.This wise principle, or the principle of "accounting, such as" is indeed quite applicable to some situations, such as the "ten-year cold window" that was often said in the past. That is greater happiness. But not all situations are like this. For example, Boyi Shuqi's behaviors such as going to Shouyang Mountain (assuming the legend is true), it is very difficult to explain it with this principle.

There are still greater difficulties in theory.First, as mentioned earlier, happiness is the specific feeling of a specific person. If this is regarded as the only real value, the behavior of altruism (or Bentham's "pleasure doctrine") is generally praised as the supreme virtue, and it will lose its meaning. The basis of the theory, because the happiness of "others" and whether "others" are happy or not, another person cannot feel it. If they cannot feel it, they must admit that it has great value. How can this make sense?Second, the master of the Bentham school, Mr. Mill Jr., admitted that different kinds of music have qualitative differences, that is to say, some kinds of music (such as appreciating artworks) are of great value, while others (such as drinking alcohol) are of little value.This is very reasonable from the point of view of common sense, but as Professor Xue Zhiwei pointed out in his book "Methods of Ethics", saying this is tantamount to giving up the principle of "quantity", because it is more fundamental to determine whether a behavior is good or bad. The standard of life is not "quantity", but "quality", which is obviously something other than happiness.

what is it then?Schopenhauer's theory of "blind will" may not be wrong.It is difficult to know why life appears in natural evolution, and what is the purpose, so we have no choice but to leave it alone.Students have needs.It is manifested as "desire" in the psychological and physical state. If you have a desire, you have to seek satisfaction. If you do not get what you want, it is manifested as suffering in the psychological and physical state.In this way, happiness is the satisfaction of desire, so Schopenhauer's view is that it is only the relief of suffering (desire but not obtained), and has no positive content, which can be regarded as value.

Taking living at home as an analogy, if happiness has positive value, it is equivalent to saving money; if it has no positive value, it is equivalent to repaying debts. Which one does it belong to?It is not easy to say, or it can be said that each is what it is, and each is not what it is not.Anyway, the facts are always the same. If there is no desire, no persistent needs, no satisfaction, then there is no talk of happiness or displeasure.Here, what is more important is the view on "desire".Pessimists, such as Schopenhauer, regard the "self" as the only party, and believe that "desire" (the so-called "blind will") is the coercive force imposed by the destiny, and they are coerced, obey orders, and work hard in the world , it doesn't really mean anything.Looking at desire and destiny in this way, the attitude is hostile. If it can be manifested in action, it is not acceptable, and the happiness born of desire is of course also discarded.

Pessimism is a view on "the ultimate reality of life", and of course people who don't believe in it don't see it that way.But it must be dismissed as a mistake, and it is not easy to find convincing reasons, because we still know very little about the truth of life, and all the philosophies in this area are just based on our own preferences.However, at least from the perspective of ordinary people, pessimism has a major weakness, which is that it is difficult to act while sitting down.Believe in pessimism, "I" as the standard, self-love, self-esteem, almost glaring at the destiny, everything wants to do the opposite.But how to reverse it?At best, how far can it go?Schopenhauer wrote an article, "On Suicide", saying that this is a challenge to nature, but he himself died of life. It can be seen that since he was born as a human being, no matter how whimsical he is, it is true to leave the ordinary way. not easy.

Extensively observing the world, we can see that the common way is the road that has to be taken, whether doubts (such as a few philosophers), or "following the emperor's rules" (such as most people), since they are already on the road, the only and most feasible way The best way is to "drop in" and "walk".Based on this principle, we might as well look at "joy" in this way: we accept "life" naturally, and we should accept it; "desire" is a concentrated and active expression of "life", the satisfaction of desire, It is an unavoidable need for "benefiting life"; the feeling of joy is a symbol, a reward, and a motivation for "getting to live life". "Birth" is the destiny. Whether this destiny is good or bad, we can ask and guess, but it is very difficult to find a definite answer.The ancients said, "The great virtue of heaven and earth is life." This kind of belief can make people feel relieved, but it may not be true.Seeking truth from facts, it is better for us to be humble, to accept the destiny without asking why, that is, not to look for evidence in metaphysics.In this way, we regard "birth" (including "desire") as a more fundamental thing, and "happiness" is only a related thing. If there is a so-called purpose in life, this purpose is "birth" rather than "happiness". This is a distance from the hedonist's point of view.

Compared with the hedonists, for "joy", we just attach importance to it and not regard it as "ism".Don’t take it as doctrine, here we allow a principle of “alternative choice”, that is to say, when deciding on behavior, between two or more possibilities, due to some considerations, we can choose not to choose the one that will quickly make us feel better. The kind that gets a certain kind of enjoyment.Naturally, it may actually have to do the same. So, is hedonism all wrong?The same cannot be said.The weakness of hedonism, in my personal opinion, is that it is too "thorough" in theory, so that "happiness" is regarded as more fundamental than "life". As for practice, it is generally acceptable and should be accepted. From the common sense of the world, no matter whether happiness is the satisfaction of desire or not the most fundamental thing, "happiness is better than suffering" is always a common sense that cannot be denied, because there is a flesh-and-blood relationship between happiness and "desire". It means having a flesh-and-blood relationship with "birth", obeying the destiny, wanting to "live", and seeking "good life", one must regard "happiness" as a very precious thing. In life, the life expectancy is less than a hundred years. Duan Mie, how to spend one’s life better? Countless people have thought about this question in ancient and modern times. Different answers can put forward different conditions, but in any case, it is an important condition to say, Most people would agree, right?