Introduction to the Good Life

1
Introduction to the Good Life

• PHIL105 T3, 2011 Lecture 3

2
How Lives Can be Good

• Aesthetically
• As an example (for a museum)
• Morally
• Causally
• Prudentially

3
The (Prudentially) Good Life

• The prudential good life life is going well for
  the person living it
• What is the best life (generally speaking)?

4
Intrinsic vs. Instrumental Value

• Intrinsic value ultimately good for you
• Instrumental value good for you because it
  leads to intrinsic value
• The test

5
Is that a good theory of the good life?

• State what is intrinsically good for us
• Justify why those things (and not other things)
  are intrinsically good for us
• Test on examples

6
The Beer Theory

• The good life drinking lots of beer

7
Jeremy Bentham (17481832)

• Quantitative Hedonism
• Happiness (a preponderance of pleasure over pain)
  is the only ultimate good
• the game of push-pin is of equal value with
  music and poetry

8
John Stuart Mill (1806 1873)

• Qualitative Hedonism
• Happiness (a preponderance of pleasure over pain)
  is the only ultimate good
• Higher vs. lower pleasures
• better to be a human
• being dissatisfied
• than a pig satisfied
• The test (try both)

9
Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900)

• Sidgwicks Hedonism
• Happiness (desirable consciousness) is the only
  ultimate good
• Are consciousness of virtue, truth, freedom, and
  beauty good for us?
• Test (X without pleasure?)

10
Why We Find it Hard to Accept that Happiness is
the Greatest Good

• Pleasure doesnt cover all the goods
• Paradox of happiness
• E.g. being nice to others
• Hedonism implies egoism
• Is pursuit of virtue, truth, freedom, and beauty
  rational?

11
G. E. Moore (18731958)

• Objective list
• Experiences of organic wholes are the ultimate
  goods
• E.g. beauty, friendship, pleasure, not pain
• the admiring contemplation of beauty is good
  in itself (Principia Ethica pp. 24950)

12
M. K. Gandhi (18691948)

• Truth and Ahimsa
• Ahimsa non-violence to all sentient creatures
• Ideal existence is full understanding of truth
  and being ruled by reason, not passions
• Youd never put a fellow creature before yourself

13
Aldous Huxley (18941963)

• The right to unhappiness
• the right to grow old and ugly and impotent the
  right to have syphilis and cancer the right to
  have too little to eat the right to be lousy
  the right to live in constant apprehension of
  what may happen tomorrow the right to be
  tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.

14
John Finnis (1940)

• Objective list
• Life (health not pain),
• knowledge,
• play,
• aesthetic experience,
• friendship,
• practical reasonableness,
• Religion
• Test X is a good, in itself, dont you think?

15
John Finnis Again

• All 7 are equally fundamental
• Each needs no justification for its value
• None can be reduced to another
• None seems less important than another
• Pleasure is not the point of it all
• Without pleasure each still has value

16
Derek Parfit (1942)

• 3 main categories of theory
• Hedonistic
• happiness
• Desire-Fulfilment
• Getting what you want
• Objective List
• Getting X, Y, Z (sometimes regardless of whether
  you want them or how they make you feel)

17
Parfit on Hedonism

• Narrow Hedonism
• There is something distinctive and unifying about
  pleasure
• But pleasures are diverse
• Preference Hedonism
• The more pleasurable of two experiences is the
  one that is preferred
• Your life goes well if you experience getting the
  things you want

18
Parfit on Desire-Fulfilment

• Unrestricted Desire-Fulfilment
• The best life is the one that has all of its
  desires satisfied
• But what about the patient
• who recovers without you
• ever knowing about it?
• Success Theory
• Only the satisfaction of your desires about
  yourself count
• Different to Preference Hedonism

19
What if your kids die?

• You are estranged from your kids and they go off
  the rails and die
• Hedonism
• Doesnt matter as long
• as you never find out
• Unrestricted Desire-Fulfilment
• Matters if you didnt want that
• Success Theory
• Matters if you wanted to be a successful parent

20
What if you die?

• Can your wellbeing be affected by events after
  your death?
• Hedonism
• No
• Unrestricted Desire-Fulfilment
• Yes
• Success Theory
• Disagreement (but P thinks Yes)
• Whats the difference between death and permanent
  alienation?

21
Preferring Alternatives

• King Lear vs. party
• Ill prefer whatever I end up choosing (no
  regrets)
• Still, its true that I would have preferred one
  over the other
• The theory, therefore, better allow for claims
  about alternate choices being better
• E.g. Informed Success Theory

22
Parfit on Objective List Theories

• OLT are different to D-FT PHT because of how
  they say value is created
• OLT We prefer X(good) because its valuable
• D-FT PHT X is valuable because we prefer it
• Rawls grass-counter e.g.
• Sadist e.g.

23
Objection to D-FT PHT

• Someone could prefer what is not best for them
  even if they know all of the facts

24
Combination

• Perhaps the best theory matches the strengths of
  D-FT PHT with that of OLT
• A life is good for the one living it to the
  extent that they are willingly engaged in
• Having knowledge
• Being rational
• Experiencing true beauty
• Experiencing mutual love

25
Objections?

• The combination account still has the problem of
  what deserves to be on the list
• (what should people like and why should they like
  it?)
• If I really enjoyed counting blades of grass, I
  would be annoyed that its not on the list

26
Exemplary Examples

• Come up with new examples to endorse your theory
  and argue against the other theories
• Hedonism
• Happiness/pleasure
• Desire-Fulfilment
• Getting what you want
• Objective List
• X, Y, Z are the ultimate goods

27
Read for Next Time

• Taylor, Richard (2008). Virtue Ethics, in
  Happiness Classic and Contemporary readings in
  Philosophy, Steven M Cahn Christine Vitrano
  (eds.), pp. 222-235, Oxford University Press.
• Nozick, Robert (1994). The Experience Machine, in
  Ethics, Peter Singer (ed.), pp. 228-229, Oxford
  University Press.
• Weijers, Dan (2011). The Experience Machine
  Objection to Hedonism, in Just the Arguments,
  Edited by Michael Bruce Steven Barbone,
  Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 229-231.

28
More on the Good Life

• PHIL105 T3, 2011 Lecture 4

29
Richard Taylor (19192003)

• Happiness should be the main concern of all
  ethics
• Happiness consists in achieving fulfilment via
  the exercise of creative intelligence

30
The Nature of Happiness

• Important
• Rare
• Good
• Misunderstood
• Eudaimonia happiness lucky flourishing
  well-being?????
• Call no man happy until he is dead

31
Happiness and Pleasure

• Are not the same thing
• Pleasures are fleeting and specific
• Happiness is very long-
• term and holistic
• Can I have an unhappy lower back?
• (because I can have a painful one)
• Hurting people gives the sadist pleasure, but not
  happiness

32
The Happiness of Lesser Beings

• Non-human animals, children, and morons can be
  happy
• But thats not the right kind of happiness
• The right kind of happiness is
• the fulfillment of a person, as a person (p.
  227)
• Would you rather be a happy moron?

33
Pleasure as an Ingredient of Happiness

• Pleasure is an external
• Externals are goods that are all or mainly
  outside of our control
• They are required for the good life/happiness,
  but not sufficient
• E.g. some people get cancer
• Other externals , honour, youth, beauty

34
Happiness and Possessions

• The world is full of materialistic people
• Some possessions are essential for life and other
  for happiness
• But, pursuit of wealth after a point is an
  obstacle
• to happiness
• Its like eating food

35
Honour, Fame, and Glory

• All externals
• Often misplaced
• Winning generals are honoured
• Very rich honoured for returning stolen property
• The excellent personal quality or achievement are
  the reward
• Heroism
• Creating an extraordinary philosophical treatise

36
What Happiness Is

• A fulfilled state of being that is of ultimate
  value for a person
• Its a state (like health is)
• Requires life-long effort
• Happiness consists in the proper functioning of a
  person as a whole
• Happiness flourishing?

37
What is Creativity?

• Flourishing for humans is high functioning in all
  areas
• Most important is our use of reason/intellect
• Observe, think, reflect, and especially create
• Creativity using reason to make new things
• New dance/sports/chess move
• Exercise skill in farming/parenting

38
The Defeat of Happiness

• Disaster (externals) can ruin your chances for
  happiness
• Stoics disagreed
• Ignorance of what happiness really is
• E.g. materialistic people
• Lack of creative intelligence
• Most people are sheep who only absorb the
  creative work of others

39
Nozicks Experience Machine
40
De Brigards Experience Machine
41
Deceived Businessman
42
The Happy Slave
43
What if I Dont Agree?

• Is it possible that most people are wrong?
• Psychology
• Experimental philosophy

44
Exemplary Examples

• Come up with new examples to endorse your theory
  and argue against the other theories
• Hedonism
• Happiness/pleasure
• Desire-Fulfilment
• Getting what you want
• Objective List
• X, Y, Z are the ultimate goods

45
For Next Time

• The meaning of life
• Read
• Nagel, Thomas (1971). The Absurd, The Journal of
  Philosophy, Vol. 68, No. 20, pp. 716-727.
• Tolstoy, Leo (2000). My Confession, in E.D.
  Klemke (ed.), The Meaning of Life, 2nd edition,
  pp. 11-20. New York Oxford University Press.