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Introduction to the Good Life
PHIL105 – T3, 2011 Lecture 3
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How Lives Can be Good• Aesthetically• As an example
(for a museum)• Morally• Causally• Prudentially
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The (Prudentially) Good Life• The prudential good life = life is
going well for the person living it• What is the best life (generally
speaking)?
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Intrinsic vs. Instrumental Value
• Intrinsic value = ultimately good for you
• Instrumental value = good for you because it leads to intrinsic value
• The test
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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
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The Beer Theory• The good life
= drinking lots of beer
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Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)
• 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”
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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)
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Henry Sidgwick (1838-1900)
• Sidgwick’s Hedonism• Happiness (desirable
consciousness) is the only ultimate good
• Are consciousness of virtue, truth, freedom, and beauty good for us?
• Test (X without pleasure?)
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Why We Find it Hard to Accept that Happiness is the
Greatest Good1. Pleasure doesn’t cover all the goods2. Paradox of happiness
– E.g. being nice to others3. Hedonism implies egoism4. Is pursuit of virtue, truth, freedom,
and beauty rational?
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G. E. Moore (1873–1958)
• 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. 249–50)
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M. K. Gandhi (1869–1948)
• Truth and Ahimsa• Ahimsa = non-violence to
all sentient creatures• Ideal existence is full
understanding of truth and being ruled by reason, not passions
• You’d never put a fellow creature before yourself
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Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
• 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.”
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John Finnis (1940)
• Objective list– Life (health & not pain), – knowledge, – play, – aesthetic experience, – friendship, – practical reasonableness, – Religion*
• Test: “X is a good, in itself, don’t you think?”
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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What if your kids die?• You are estranged from your kids and
they go “off the rails” and die• Hedonism
– Doesn’t matter as long as you never find out
• Unrestricted Desire-Fulfilment– Matters if you didn’t want that
• Success Theory– Matters if you wanted to be a successful
parent
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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)– What’s the difference between death
and permanent alienation?
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Preferring Alternatives• King Lear vs. party• I’ll prefer whatever I end up choosing
(no regrets) • Still, it’s 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
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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.
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Objection to D-FT & PHT • Someone could prefer what is
not best for them even if they know all of the facts
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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
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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 it’s not on the list
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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
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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.
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More on the Good Life
PHIL105 – T3, 2011 Lecture 4
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Richard Taylor (1919–2003)
• Happiness should be the main concern of all ethics
• Happiness consists in achieving fulfilment via the exercise of creative intelligence
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The Nature of Happiness• Important• Rare• Good• Misunderstood• Eudaimonia = happiness = lucky =
flourishing = well-being?????• Call no man happy until he is dead
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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
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The “Happiness” of Lesser Beings
• Non-human animals, children, and “morons” can be happy…
• But that’s 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?
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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
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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
• It’s like eating food
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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
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What Happiness Is• A fulfilled state of being that is of
ultimate value for a person• It’s a state (like health is)• Requires life-long effort• Happiness consists in the proper
functioning of a person as a whole• Happiness = flourishing?
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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
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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
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Nozick’s Experience Machine
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De Brigard’s Experience Machine
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Deceived Businessman
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The Happy Slave
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What if I Don’t Agree?• Is it possible that most people are
wrong?• Psychology• Experimental philosophy
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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
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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.