Friday, September 19, 2014
Lucretius and Epictetus
True happiness is a vague and overused term that has been stretched and misunderstood through the ages. What can we truly say is true happiness? For many happiness can simply mean getting a paid vacation, to others it may mean waking up to see the people they love right before their eyes. Though with Lucretius and Epictetus they have different definitions of what happiness truly means. For Lucretius happiness lies in having no fear and living everyday pain free. Whilst, Epictetus believes that principles and opinions are the only things that make us truly unhappy. The thing is that no matter what people say about happiness they have their different opinions on what it truly is. In my opinion happiness lies in a smile and good joke. In your opinion what does true happiness means to you. How do you feel about Lucretius and Epictetus' views on happiness.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I believe happiness is making other people laugh or smile and then getting to see that happiness in their eyes. Happiness is having something unique and realizing how special and fortunate that something is. Happiness is working towards a goal, achieving that goal, and then looking back on the journey there. Happiness is all of the little things in life that often get overlooked because we are too busy to stop and recognize them. When we experience true happiness we are not dead, we are eduring the pains and making the most of the joys. Death is the absence of pain, because this is when eternal happiness begins and we meet our maker. So while I am still alive my little happiness's are singing in the shower, Christmas's with my family, crazy nights with my friends, and making those around me smile. I will have to wait to find out the happiness that awaits me in the afterlife.
ReplyDeleteHappiness, to me, is found in the ability to enjoy the little things. Happiness can not be bought, but is found everyday in the little things in life. Hanging out with your friends, enjoying a good joke, dancing in the rain, the smell of fresh baked cookies, a baby's laugh: these are just a few things that make me happy. For me, being in a long distance relationship, happiness is ALL about the little things: the random "i miss you" texts, goofy pictures in the middle of the day, him telling me all about his day. Little things make me happy. I don't have to have the world to be happy. I've just learned to enjoy the little things. For someone else, it could be completely different or there could be some similarities. Everyone's views on happiness are different.
ReplyDeleteHappiness comes when you live your life in accordance to your belief system, and you find confidence within yourself. If you follow what you believe in, whether it a God or yourself, and you live your life striving to be the best version of yourself then you will find happiness. It is through trusting in your belief system you gain confidence within yourself, and you are able to both understand yourself, as well as those around you better. If everyone lived through Lucretius and Epictetus ideals of happiness there may be a lack of sorrow, but with that comes a lack of true happiness, How can one understand what it really means to be happy if one does not understand the hurt of loss or the pain of sorrow. I do not understand how you could only feel one extreme if happiness/ pleasure if what the final goal is as humans. We would be living in some sort of middle state, becasue we would not be able to see how good we would really have it. We would have compliance, not happiness.
ReplyDelete