greatness vs happiness

7/31/2019 Greatness VS Happiness

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*HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES (HS 1020) REPORT* of 18

: ‘GREATNESS VS HAPPINESS’ AND VIEWS

OF DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHERS ON THAT.

VS

NAME: KAKUMANI A M VISHNU.

ROLL NO: CE10B029.

CLASS: ASPECTS OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY.

Professor: Dr. Anthony savariraj

Guest faculty, iit madras.

Bibliography: Wikipedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of

philosophy,Economics and philosophyByPeter Koslowsk I, PlATo’S

meno, urban dictionary,




CONTENTS

Preface

WHAT IS GREATNESS?

WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

HOWANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERS FELT ON THESE

ISSUES?

FROM ECONOMICS POINT OF VIEW HOW THEY ARE

CLASSIFIED?

ONE REAL STORY OF A PERSON WHO DOES NOT KNOW

THE DIFFERENCE OF THESE TWO AND ENDED UP WITH

SUICIDE.

MY IMPRESSION ON THESE TERMS and REASON, WHY

I have chosen THIS Topic?




Preface

It would be quite exaggerating if I introduce myself, so

giving you a brief introduction to my report in Preface.

Basically this report is dedicated to all the wisdom lovers in

the world.

If you go through this report, you will learn the two basic

terms, for which all the Humans strive hard throughout

their lifetime.

A real incident narrated in this report, will touch yourHearts for sure, sensitivity of this issue also will be known.

You will get to know the role of Economics in Philosophy.

Great philosophers and their profound sayings can be

known to some extent.

On a whole, this report is an opinion cluster of renowned

philosophers on Greatness and Happiness.




WHAT IS GREATNESS?

Father of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard‘s view of ―Greatness‖;

The hardest task one can have is to continue to love hisfellows despite all reasons he should not.

And the true sign of sanity and greatness is to so continue.

To do one‘s task without becoming furious at others whoseek to prevent one is a mark of greatness.

We can at least understand the one fact that greatness doesnot stem from savage wars or being known.

It stems from being true to one‘s own decency, from goingon helping others whatever they do or think or say despiteall savage acts against one; to persevere without changingone‘s basic attitude toward man.

True greatness depends on total wisdom.

Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia Definitions are as follows;

According to Urban Dictionary, greatness is an acquisitionof status by the people who have contributed to anorganization, group, or purpose that is greater than them.

It is defined by the deeds of people that make this world abetter place.

To provide a purpose to those who have no purpose, andto sustain it, mitigate it from damage, and praise it in anyway they can, while still maintaining their own dignity andgreatness.

The greatness of man is apparent by its prosperity and

conspiracy.




WIKIPEDIA Statement is as follows;

Much of the research on greatness doesn‘t actually usethe term ‗great‘ in describing itself, rather preferringterms such as ‘eminence’, ‘genius’, ‘exceptional achievement’ etc.,

Ancient Greek Philosophers never made any statementssolely on Greatness, so considering the definitions of 20 th and 21st centuries, giving my opinion.

From above statements, I think Greatness could be definedas the following;

Whatever has been done to make this world a betterplace, can be referred to greatness.

Terms such as eminence, genius etc., defines thecompleted work, they might have nothing to do withworld.

In other way, True greatness can be defined as the onewhich merely depends on Total Wisdom.

As Ron Hubbard said, Greatness stems from being trueto one‘s own decency, from going on helping others

whatever they do or think or say despite all savage actsagainst one; to persevere without changing one‘s basicattitude toward man.

Finally, Greatness because of Prosperity never sustains.




WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

Aristotle said, ―Happiness is the meaning and the purposeof life, the whole aim and end of human existence‖

Socrates had a question on Happiness that whetherhappiness might be a result of learning or habit or training,or perhaps divine lot or even chance?

Aristotle says that it admits of being shared by some sort of

learning and taking pains. But despite this, even if not divine, it is one of the most

divine things, and "for what is greatest and most beautiful tobe left to chance would be too discordant".

Apart from Ancient philosophers, we have definition of 21st century which is mentioned below;

Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterizedby positive emotions ranging from contentment tointense joy.

Various research groups, including Positive psychology,endeavor to apply the scientific method to answerquestions about what "happiness" is, and how wemight attain it.

Philosophers and religious thinkers often define

happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing,rather than simply as an emotion.

Happiness in this older sense was used to translatethe Greek Eudemonia, and is still used in virtue ethics.

Happiness economics suggests that measures of publichappiness should be used to supplement moretraditional economic measures when evaluating the

success of public policy.




In Scientificview,Happiness is a fuzzy concept and can mean

many things to many people. Part of the challenge of ascience of happiness is to identify different concepts of happiness, and where applicable, split them into theircomponents.

There are definitions from religious point of view also, but I

don‘t want to reveal them, since I don‘t believe religion.

Before defining Happiness on my own, I think I should drive

home the point that, when I say, what is Happiness? I refer

to both Psychological aspect of Happiness and Prudential

value too.

In brief, I think Happiness can be defined as;

From psychological view, answer could be

satisfaction, pleasure, or a positive emotional

condition.

―Happiness‖ in Value sense concerns what

benefits a person, is good for her, makes her better

off, serves her interests, or is desirable for her for

her sake.

It is more concerned with well-being, welfare,

utility or nourishing etc., in the second case i.e.,

Happiness when defined in a prudential point of view.

It is exactly the same what Aristotle quoted, I

mean happiness is the purpose of life, in a way it is

what we must strive for, in our life. Even if you are

Billionaire there are situations that you might not be

happy, money can‘t buy happiness.




HOW ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHERS FELT ON THESE?

Ancient Greek philosophers never thought on greatness, it

might be because of they didn‘t find any difference between

happiness and Greatness in those days.

‗The pursuit of happiness‘ was so vital to western countries

founding fathers that they included it in the very firstparagraph of America‘s Declaration of Independence, They

thought it important enough to consider it one of the

primary ‗unalienable rights‘ endowed by the Creator and

secured by government. I dug down to take a look at the

classical and modern theoretical roots of happiness.

This topic reveals patterns and root architecture for the

concept of happiness that I discovered. I invite you to

journey with me into the world of three Greek

philosophers – Socrates, Plato and Aristotle – to

understand their views of happiness. Let the journey begin.

SOCRATES

At the top of the happiness family tree sits the father forwestern ethics and moral philosophy: Socrates. He viewedhappiness along with virtue, knowledge, goodness, and careof the soul.

He believed that a life of virtue (arête) is paramount. Noone can be happy, he argued, without some sort of moralgoodness.




In Apology, Socrates stated this fundamental belief clearly,

―I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old andyoung alike, not to take thought for your persons orproperties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatestimprovement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not givenby money, but that from virtue comes money and everyother good of man, public as well as private‖ (Plato).

In other words, wealth does not bring about happiness, butrather happiness brings about wealth.

Socrates‘ views of happiness are not as overtly stated asare Aristotle‘s. We can, however, infer specific meanings.Happiness, to Socrates, is not a specific virtue, per se. It ismore closely aligned with man‘s ‗good‘. Through personalexample and philosophical inquiry – often referred to asthe Socratic Method - wisdom to Socrates appears to beone a primary ‗good‘. He contributes to our understanding

of the virtue of wisdom and knowledge by bringing light tothe reasoning process. He claims that the unexamined lifeis not worth living.

Here we infer Socrates‘ view of happiness. Happy people

are ‗wise‘ people, those who are open-minded andresponse-able, flexible in their abilities to respond to cross-examinations about their beliefs, assumptions, claims andpresumptions.

If Socrates‘ argument is taken to the extreme, he wasbasically saying that one‘s essential happiness is his or herability to philosophize.

Happiness then might be defined as the peace and defusedharm of open-mindedness and response-ability, even in theface of unjust execution, as Socrates demonstrated with hisown courage in facing death.




From what we can see, happiness to him appears to have

more to do with one‘s internal mental state and outlook onlife than it does on external factors such as wealth, careerpaths, social status or success defined in material terms.

EPICTETUS

Regarding the importance of one‘s mental state, Stoicphilosopher Epictetus argued that if you want to raise yourlevel of happiness, you must dispute and discontinuenegative world views and interpretations.

Epictetus taught that it is not the negative events in life -such as slavery; disease; loss of job, spouse or limb - thatactually disturb you. Rather, it is the view you take of theseevents.

If anyone knew the importance of negative events, Epictetusdid. He was a Roman slave. In essence, what he is saying is

that there are some things in life you can control and someyou can‘t.

If you wish to be happiest, he suggests that you shouldfocus your attention on the things over which you havecontrol, like your mental state. He suggests that you stopgiving attention to things beyond your control.

PLATO

Consider the next node of the happiness family tree,Socrates‘ protégé Plato. True happiness, argued Plato, is aregular examination of one‘s life. Here, he agrees withSocrates. He argues for the ideal republic, state and lifewhere one lives in accordance with one‘s purpose.Happiness is a reward for goodness of living in alignment

with one‘s purpose.




ARISTOTLE

One level below Plato of the happiness family tree isAristotle, Plato‘s student. In Nicomachean Ethics, he arguesthat the best and happiest human life is one that isorientedtowards contemplation and completion.

It is one‘s intellectual activity and life well-lived thatcontributed to one‘s happiness, he claimed.

Intellectual activities consist of learning, inquiring and

contemplating. Whereas Socrates‘ views of happiness are implied,

happiness is described directly; it is the cornerstone of Aristotle‘s ethical system.

Aristotle defines happiness as a complete, active life, livedaccording to reason.He identifies the necessary conditionsfor happiness: material goods, freedom, virtue, health,availability of friends, rest, and recreation.

Key components of happiness are intellectual activity, activecivic and political life, friendship, sports and athletics, andcreating and enjoying art.

While Plato thought that virtue and health are not‗components‘ of happiness, Aristotle disagreed. He believedthat virtue and health are necessary ‗conditions‘ of happiness.

Aristotle is interested in each human reaching his or herfullest potential in a lifetime. Accordingly, happiness is thehighest good that can be achieved.

Therefore, our true purpose in life is our highest good. Allour actions should attempt to support this purpose.




Even though not all action results in happiness, Aristotle

claims that virtuous action does. Happiness, to Aristotle, includes pleasure, but does not

stop with hedonism. For happiness to be complete, itshould be extended over an average life lived undermoderately comfortable circumstances, and enriched byconversations with friends.

The highest level of happiness is found through acontemplative or philosophic life of reflection in which

virtues of understanding, science and wisdom are practiced.Happiness is a kind of emotional well-being that resultsfrom well-doing.

Ultimate happiness is not the maximum sum of all pleasuresexperienced, but rather the demonstration of our highestfaculties.




Role of economics in this topic

Reason, why Economics all of a sudden get in to this report

is, while I was searching for reports on Happiness, eventually

had a look at the famous economist AmartyaSen biography.

I was totally amused, when I came to know that AmartyaSen

won a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College, which gave him

four years of freedom to do anything he liked, during which

period he took the radical decision of studying philosophy.

AmartyaSen related the importance of studying philosophy

thus: "The broadening of my studies into philosophy was

important for me not just because some of my main areas of

interest in economics relate quite closely to philosophical

disciplines (for example, social choice theory makes intenseuse of mathematical logic and also draws on moral

philosophy, and so does the study of inequality and

deprivation), but also because I found philosophical studies

very rewarding on their own‖

His fields of research are Welfare economics, ethics. I

think welfare can relate to happiness, we already know that

happiness is a kind of value, namely what philosophers

nowadays tend to call prudential value — or, more

commonly, well-being, welfare, utility or flourishing.

So, I would like to introduce Welfare Economics.




In Economics too, ―Greatness‖ has nothing to do, I mean, it

is happiness of the people which is considered, at the time

of making Economic policies.

Economists have had some things to say about other

dimensions of moral appraisal, but welfare takes center

stage. Indeed normative economics is called ―welfare

economics.‖

One central question of moral philosophy has been to

determine what things are intrinsically good for humanbeings. This is a central question, because all plausible moral

views assign an important place to individual welfare or well-

being.

There are many theories of well-being, and the prevailing

view among economists themselves has shifted from

hedonism (which takes the good to be a mental state such

as pleasure or happiness) to the view that welfare is the

satisfaction of preferences.

Unlike hedonism, taking welfare to be the satisfaction of

preference specifies how to find out what is good for a

person rather than committing itself to any substantive view

of a person's good.

Note that equating welfare with the satisfaction of preferences is not equating welfare with any feeling of

satisfaction. If welfare is the satisfaction of preferences, then

a person is better off if what he or she prefers comes to

pass, regardless of whether that occurrence makes the agent

feel satisfied.




A REAL STORY OF A PERSON WHO DOES NOT KNOW THE

DIFFERENCE OF THESE TWO AND ENDED UP WITH SUICIDE.

The German tycoon, Adolf Merckle, took his own life and

said good-bye to the world.

He threw himself on the railroad and let the train solve his

life dilemma.

Definitely not a good way to die, his miserably crushed body

spread all over the ground.

From time to time there was such bad news filled in the

newspaper.

It seems absurd and unreasonable to me why rich people

want to terminate their life.

Money, the thing that most people fervently chasing, should

bring people good life and happiness.

However, it turns the other way, millionaires act like frogsin the boiling pot, vehemently seeking a way to leap out, but

fail to reach the safe land.

Money couldn't bring them security and peace, sorrow and

grief bind them to a gloomy quagmire.

This is a real incident which happened in Germany, he

committed suicide because he was not happy being a

billionaire too.

There are people like Oprah Winfrey, who have become

billionaires overcoming so many odds in their life, later went

in to the talk show stream, which she is interested in and

become a billionaire, this is for those who think making

money is important than what you are interested in or in

which you find your happiness.




My IMPRESSION ON THESE TERMS and REASON, WHY

Ihave chosen THIS TOPIC?

In my childhood, I had a question of ―Why are we born?

Who am I referring to whenever I say ‗I‘? Why should one

have Family relations? How am I related to World?‖

I took a Diary and pen, started putting my thoughts on

paper,

I was thinking on that for about 3 days. On the fourth day, I came up with a conclusion that

whatever I do in future everyone should remind me even

after my demise.

To my surprise my father had a look at that diary!! I think

you can expect what might have happened; He was shocked

to see that and asked me to chill out in life rather thinking on

these issues.

In addition to this, I got introduced to a term ―Greatness‖ in

my Intermediate; I had so many questions from my Teachers,

friends, Relatives that whom do you feel great? Why do you

feel great?

From then I started thinking on ―Is it enough if we are great?

Or Being happy all the time as suggested by my father isImportant.‖

That is the reason why I have chosen this topic. In

philosophy we always have a solution to every problem, I

mean problems related to existence, ethics, psychological

issues what I have now etc.,




After going through so many reports on these terms, I finally

came to a conclusion that being happy is quite indifferentfrom being great.

Being happy is for one‘s good mental health and to maintain

it throughout his life.

Being great is for, others reminding you as an extraordinary

guy throughout your life and even after your demise.

For becoming great, one should have some passions, theymight look crazy for others, but you should always enjoy

fulfilling your passions.

Ofcourse every one of us will have some passions, having

peculiar ones and doing them in your style makes you great

and gets reminded by everyone.

What I would be wanted is to lead a happy life, I don‘t want

happiness of bearing kind, I mean happy he who learns tobear what he cannot change.

If it is necessary for my happiness, I don‘t care going through

the school of hard knocks.

As Einstein said, ―the only road to true human greatness is

through the school of hard knocks‖ I don‘t know whether it

leads to greatness or happiness but I will do it for my

happiness itself.

This is what I conveyed in the first page using pictures.

Who knows, I might become great for what I do and I believe in,

so finally, I would like to be happy for what I do and regarding

greatness I will leave it to world to decide.




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