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  • (Griswold) Happiness, Tranquillity and Philosophy

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    griswold on happiness and tranquility philosophy

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    (Griswold) Happiness, Tranquillity and Philosophy (1)

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    griswold on happiness and tranquility philosophy

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    242 Ansichten13 Seiten

    (Griswold) Happiness, Tranquillity and Philosophy

    Hochgeladen von

    jeremiahac
    griswold on happiness and tranquility philosophy

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Als PDF herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
    Markieren Sie unangemessene Inhalte
    von 13
    Happiness, Tranquillity, and Philosophy CHARLES L. GRISWOLD, JR. ‘The apne of mand elas ofa ther rato setae, srs to ive been the egal purpose tn teal by the Astor of ute when be brow hs Aa Sth Fw quisnoxsrossss great an extent urgency and ger philosophical interest as “wns haplne? I apes the tints end of ours, Anta rue cera an {nae en Ao witout hapless seems seacely worth he hari Te pus of tpi Jleront Lockwn phn, neat thoroughly woven al ont poets aul apes Tete wna are seed ee ars The fi that paosopers have had ltl te ty aout tn pte af ts enomous importance to hme fe One woul have hgh sre a aman tn ne ‘dovoed oi Anstole and some of kis telense desconans ‘couse, writ onthe sj Bt they re th exceptions hat pone these, There exist sme limited tretinets by major Catan seca phllsopers: oe this ofthe rears by Bots a The Consolation of Philowophy sn by Thomas inte Summa Thole ‘Dut no major mdi eats deed othe subjet has comet tous. Devas, Spinoza, Lack, Leibl Bersley, Vola, Hote. ton, Hume, Burk, and Smith ofler x romar but onc aga 90 ‘tended teatment Diderot rumints ba the sje sins Ro fre du prmeeursoltaire Rosen offers us something mores mediation tan an argue Kast has relly ey sont the nator of happiness ren Hough haps: plays ao len the architecton ofits. For Hegel. ton, he tp a erative interes! Huser, Heslegger and Sarre have rete: H Bb ry “Tranquility, Deste, Blessedness to says Nietzsche's remarks are scatered; surprisingly there are ‘no long treatments in Emerson, Thoreau, James, or Dewey. Among the classical wilitartans, only Sidgwick makes extensive remarks, but ‘eve scarcely amount toa comprehensive treatment ofthe subject? ‘Wehave Bertrand Russells essay a ew scattered remarks by Witgen- sci, nothing by Whitehead of note. Thoze exist contemporary dis- ‘Gaiions and no doubt there are other pieces one might mentin.® ‘My point is that by and large the major philosophers in the Western tradition have not pad Ue topic a great deal of attention” “Thislends me ta scond bert about this sbjet Nong losophers seem generally to assume that there isan answer to the ‘question “what is happiness?” Some clan to have found it and (per Tap fora foe} wil tell you howto do the same, Atte sme ime, there soem tobe general agreement that happiness isa hard thing ton” ‘hati, to define ond to attain, It strange situation; happinessis so tmich «part of us asto be unable to remain unknown: yet we cannot find it ‘A third observation f that “happiness” is wsed in many ways. Tt can be spoken of as contentment, or tranguilty, or blessedness, oF festa oF as ¢ tnood, of as well-being, to name a few. One could Speak of inthe long-term or inthe short-term sense. We aze not ‘divas clear aboot which senge we have in ind when we talk cas fly about our being “happy.” Our Vocabulary of happiness is not a failsafe guide tothe meaning of the term, Tn lentfying a sense of what happiness can mean, however, one must appeal to some intuition oF opinion, and ineitably others wil tppeal to ofr iatuitions and opiatons’ We must, a Aristotle say, Start vith what own tous in order to reach what s knowable in fell Nleomacheun Ethie 1.4.100552-7). But pants of what is known tous cont with other pats ‘This problem is implicit in prephilosophie ordinary ituitions People often assume thal happiess bas a “youl know it when you ‘see W” quality Yet people also recognize that they frequently soe mis. {alenls they will say" thought he was so happy! I've Imown him for years! [can't believe he committed suicide!” Or agin, people often [vocite the accutnlation of wealth wit happiness, and pechaps are ‘motivated to accumulate wealth precisely because they think i will, ‘ning them great happiness. Yet moraists heve abvays told us, and ex- perience seetns ta confirm, that neither the pursuit of wealth nor lappiness, Tranquility, and Pilowophy Fo sucess in hat puss ring happiness! So wets recognize that she es wen pip ions ‘ot hap ines. Ise no way of avoling this old methodologal problem, ings Soe rt the pon ato yen ea ‘more chan parochial concsons? ‘In approaching the nov of happiness, Ihave one partialar sense of the term nnd, armel thet in hich we ean speak ofa eon a generally “hap” as hay ve the ng ter Tan ong ange sense of happiness” you could sy you are apy even tough atthe moment of yng it jou ight 0k feel apy We often fel apps tts or at oj fr exp, Ten be happy whee e- cele tenure Bt is diferent fom the happiness that applies toa Ife asa whole and which dhs arses Fm a certain may of eading a We. Tn choosing to reflect on happiness inthis more comprehensive sete 1am allow Arsote’s ea, You rec his remark that “one Swallow doesnot make a spring nor does one sunny dy, slay one diy ore stort time doesnot rake a man blessed (makarion) and Ippy(eudanon)"° Kant oo, for alot bis diferences th Arte, spss ohne” nhs ogrnge nse te aor ths mean te dings bapinese fom jo ext «romantic transcending, andthe ke Happnes, nto see {arn diese ingit, not mood. These may perhaps be eeredtolegitmatey by our word “happiness.” but 1am interested in casing this oer Sense af the term, because tis precisely this sense which people sen teow to ave i mind when engaged in the part of happiness. "Happiness both subjective and objective ques ts both an exportece aud a notion, and nlther of these two dimensions Should be ignored. Calling sach and each the eontons of happiness istobaveaviw of hs ater han ht experience of which hve ee the conditions. At the sme tie, frst person reports of one expert cececan be stn. Ae elec oma ony ye oF snot happy, Tse that have odgimentsn mind about ml the world whats sesh now and ver the long teem, whats worth pursuing and avoiding and so oth, Tcl be mistaken in astssng ny of those things 1 shall argue thatthe experlene of happiness i best und stood, ant, in terms of rangi At these te, T shall soges that we cannot be happy unless rightly anesthe cond tins of our happnes. sal attempt to elucidate what happiness 16 “Tranquility, Desire, Blessedness ty etogting rom vt shall al tent” nd shal plore further the connection betwoen happiness and assessment or cae to One ncers it nfo tagpns err Sten este w anand esp bee HORRY BS prc inosine spy Te eter tonal xn nya ete en By eects ee tcc nde paucn kes Seay nee lacy ud ape legate ot cranes det go of thr emule peromeae bow cher cmp ba Witbier nat stoma ins th ster cx ore) ie ae cen wth ply enero wer tetet cen thane ul be Sacto an Bete eicurcpeon ecranaat SESE CTE wae muy er nes at «come rene esta of it moe oer tl se vette ties Sele eanot ee le aetna weanon ine re fy gh ete Panta wed ang, he seed re nn See ape Eno mach pein a the ec seach ou te ela do exe | HAPPINESS AND TRANQUILLITY apis oss in banquiy denyment. Wout {eo Ge case oa ejoments nd we here Sosa tamu three ay ng wc nt bie See Na st" Happiness is best characterized in terns of tranquility. So understood it captures the connection between happiness and being lt rest. Happiness i more like rest than motion, into senses. Fis, in the sense of lacking significant discord; itis peaceful, at a deep level. Second, itis more like coming to a stop rather than like @ process of moving towards a goal. Happiness resembles an end stat, ‘Pcompletion ot fulilment, rather than a condition of lacking and “vercoming of lack:" For thie rea, happiness and conteatment Happiness, Tranquility, and Philosophy ¥ com alike, and later I wil sy more about the difference between th two. When one says “I ave lived happily” or “Lam deeply happy ‘one mens, anon other things, that ote does not experience sga ‘ant internal discord, and that fundamentally one oceupies spit plice from which one doesnot desire to move. One isnot, ata de Tevel, azxious; basicaly, one is properly oriented, and one’ funda ‘mental stance tovatds the world i complete, at rest. Lam sketching ‘5a starting pont, this sort of wew ofthe experience of happiness. “Tranguility” usally tanslates the Greek term atari, a tex thats the natural competitor to eudaimonia, which isthe one tha Plato and Aristotle use. The latter is normally translated, with trop tio, as “happinoss,” and less often as “blessednes"s tora I al ‘ict to translate, and “tranquility” is somothing of an approxi ‘Gon, "Impertrbabiity” also captures something of ts sense ‘The word atarazla doesnot cur in Pato and Aristotle tis bbe found i important passages in Sextus Epirus, Epictotu ‘Marcus Aurelius, and Epicurus, among others The alpha prvatve not of course, captured by “tranquility,” and this is one way in whi ‘he trnlation in smperfect In ts verbal form, with or without thy alpha prvative, the word goes back to Homer Thee ts waed Ihomes, among othe things a horse src by an arow “Aisturbed (exdpage) the chariot and other horses (Iliad 8.86, “Tarxipps {CDisturber of Hore” spoked rae courses. na numberof water the ves can refer to mental or physical penonal disturbance, or ‘the “dsturbanee” ofa pls, thai, the upsetting of evi discord ‘ce ring up trouble agitating, cstracing, east sso atarax fn the community, One can “deur” «thing, a when one sts up ody of water: « mudslinger or muckeraker can “strb® an ind ‘ida or community one can “star” inthe sense of med, psc ln army or nny thi sown ito confusion Ss ths described b ‘Thocyddes. At 496-3 Thucydides wes the verb in desenbing a tt in which Athenians mistakenly ill one another as a rau ofthe sal confusion and disorientation, Tn general, then, peacefulness and calmness (hol) are aki ta staraia. Understood as ataravia, happiness ia state of mind, beter «stato of soul In speaking a eudaimonta, Epcot exit equate i with otra wit freedom an asenoe of passions op ia) Tes rer ie a tat of peels, being in conto, ae Iharony calm, ress opposed toa state of war, desing that whi 1s ‘Tranquility, Desire, Blessedness ‘seat of oe conta to can, ater cord, bane, tn, Portutbaton, Bur donot wat fo corse is Sts sein or {roy ots eeaoe servi about apps as tara ate tobe ound inthe Sepis and Eplorene, but lo bneaae there tre poems with Let meses te decom oy aroment Beas of ser pass tom ebhes vrata Hobbes Ethan we acs “Cntinal cin cbtanng hse thing which aan Soon tn ote ese at SStosmcominsal poser tba en cll FELICITY {mes the Fly of ths Me For threo uch hing pepe Tran anuliy of mind, whe we Ine here, Because Tae ells but Mtn, and can never bo witht Desi, nor without Fee, no ‘noe than wt Semse* Prem the ok Hobbes bes the ame theme, Mer decaring hat here eno auch ting a 8 ‘Summ Bont, contay to the “books ofthe old Moral Pbo- phere he state ayia conta progres of he dese, fo Enc ebjet to enother; te stig of he fer, ig lt he Sry othe tn And therfore the ua atom ant. tons ofall men, end not only othe procting, but oto the turing ofa contented Met pt fore gener natin of tanking, perpetual and rexdot dex of Power alter powes, tat South ene Death Lie fy inser words, contnuly trtion bec cance ven by dese, anne far td Eames the earcf vn det Homan ie anata Getarhane deg or reper Frm the ante or maton Fobles expan swe nage finan phenomena, fom compel tote conten fo an to cry sequence ii were len aso dao hen we suey would cali hapyy: we weld not post what Hebhes cle perpetall Trnqullyo nod Hobbes seems ht n asaclatng contentment wih ie moverent rom oe sift othe net sce itn Sealy unabl vn though sel aby, The pest coat Hebe ptr then, Beveen Tey ort we might aig cures om his own word, betel repeated contenant Tanqlly ovr ne Fely einer intervenes vith ansety, hota acy ot We on gt hat oe eth of te ‘rant for empl, lack even fy, Nenopbons Bl proves & ‘ondefl does to tht feet and lev undrtand why the von of the “pp oan oxen Happiness, Tranquility and Philosophy. 19 Hobbes parallel distinctions between felicity and tranquility, ‘motion and rest, desiring and completion, seom basically right. But ‘We need not accep the view tha happiness has been completely de- ‘serbed in this manner, or that tis impossible in this fe ‘On this iow, the enemy of rangi is ansiety.Thave in mind rot so much anxiety about ths or that event, but rather & general naety about things being out of iter not stable, not holding, poten- ‘sally dissolving” When Hobbes tall about the fer people hav that ‘thoir competitors might gain enough power to threaten them, he is Aetting atthe latter, thong he remains within the sphere of the po- Tinea That nagging doube, or even the quiet dread of. of what? Perhaps itis somothin like dread thatthe foundations on which we bull our fe are not yet finished, or may crumble, or never were well laid Prtaps (ve thnk silently to ourselves) my ile as been a waste, ‘amounted to nothing. What havo I become? What will become of ‘ne? Was tis a praiseworthy life? Even worse, the soul may whis- | pertoitelf "I don't know, things are eo dificult to discam cleaty, 1 Seem surrounded by grayness and beyond that by darkness, every- thing is so... indefinite, formless.” Whea questions such es these feat away your soul, ansety or topaz has won out over happiness (cf. Adaan Smith, TMS 62:32, p. 235) -Atarasia captures what one might ell the affective, subjective

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