Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Happiness
What is considered happiness? Most all people have a different way of becoming happy. For some it could be helping the needy and giving back to their communities, but for others it could be receiving material things. According to Lucretius happiness is obtained by ataraxia (freedom from fear) and aponial (the absence from pain.) But Epictetus would say that happiness is to be in accord with the laws of reason and in agreement with nature. I would have to agree mostly with Epictetus's view of happiness. It is human nature to stress, become sad, or to grieve but know the limit to those things and do such in accordance with nature. So for example; if a family member passes away it is most certainly okay to be upset and grieve, but don't grieve so much that you go into depression. Anyone else side with Epictetus's view of happiness over Lucretius?
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I would say that I also favor Epictetus' view of happiness. To me it seems more natural and easy for humans to do this. As you mentioned, anyone would be upset that a family member had passed. So with that being said, people should be able to eventually pull themselves together after a period of grief or sadness. As for Lucretius, I feel like his ataraxia and aponia are little hard to achieve. Society is full of things that cause pain and fear so it is pretty hard avoid.
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