Should happiness be our goal?

Should you think about your duty, or about the consequences of your actions? Or should you concentrate on becoming a good person?

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Jori
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Should happiness be our goal?

Post by Jori »

Immanuel Kant thinks that happiness should not be our goal. He thinks that moral duty, not happiness, should be our goal. In other words, we should do good things for their own sake or simply because they are good, and not because they will make us happy. Even if doing the right thing will make us unhappy, do it anyway. I think I agree. Goodness is more important than happiness. What do you think?
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RCSaunders
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Re: Should happiness be our goal?

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Jori wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:28 am Immanuel Kant thinks that happiness should not be our goal. He thinks that moral duty, not happiness, should be our goal. In other words, we should do good things for their own sake or simply because they are good, and not because they will make us happy. Even if doing the right thing will make us unhappy, do it anyway. I think I agree. Goodness is more important than happiness. What do you think?
It's not and, "our," or, "we," question. Goodness only pertains to individuals. To live one's own life successfully as a human being, achieving and being all one can be to thoroughly fulfill and enjoy one's own life is the good.
theory
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Re: Should happiness be our goal?

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Jori wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:28 am Immanuel Kant thinks that happiness should not be our goal. He thinks that moral duty, not happiness, should be our goal. In other words, we should do good things for their own sake or simply because they are good, and not because they will make us happy. Even if doing the right thing will make us unhappy, do it anyway. I think I agree. Goodness is more important than happiness. What do you think?
Kant argued that although it is not possible to have knowledge of morality, reflection on the moral law leads to a justified belief in them, which amounts to a kind rational faith.

Kant argued that morality is evident by seeking an answer to the question “How may I hope to obtain happiness when I conduct myself so as to be deserving of happiness?
The answer, therefore, of the first of the two questions of pure reason with reference to practical interests, [p. 809] is this, ‘do that which will render thee deserving of happiness.’ The second question asks, how then, if I conduct myself so as to be deserving of happiness, may I hope thereby to obtain happiness? The answer to this question depends on this, whether the principles of pure reason which a priori prescribe the law, necessarily also connect this hope with it?

I say, then, that just as the moral principles are necessary according to reason in its practical employment, it is equally necessary according to reason in its theoretic employment to assume that everybody has reason to hope to obtain happiness in the same measure in which he has rendered himself deserving of it in his conduct; and that, therefore, the system of morality is inseparably, though only in the idea of pure reason, connected with that of happiness.

In an intelligible, that is, in a moral world, in conceiving which we take no account of any of the impediments to morality (desires, etc.), such a system, in which happiness is proportioned to morality, may even be considered as necessary, because freedom,as repelled or restrained by the moral law, is itself the cause of general happiness, and rational beings therefore themselves, under the guidance of such principles, the authors of the permanent well-being of themselves, and at the same time of others.

Critique of Pure Reason - Chapter 2 / Section 2
In short: right conduct. How can one not be happy when one conducts him/herself rightly (so to be deserving to be happy)?
Belinda
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Re: Should happiness be our goal?

Post by Belinda »

Happiness is a transitory affect.This is why a man needs some more permanent goal than happiness.
theory
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Re: Should happiness be our goal?

Post by theory »

RCSaunders wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:44 am
Jori wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:28 am Immanuel Kant thinks that happiness should not be our goal. He thinks that moral duty, not happiness, should be our goal. In other words, we should do good things for their own sake or simply because they are good, and not because they will make us happy. Even if doing the right thing will make us unhappy, do it anyway. I think I agree. Goodness is more important than happiness. What do you think?
It's not and, "our," or, "we," question. Goodness only pertains to individuals. To live one's own life successfully as a human being, achieving and being all one can be to thoroughly fulfill and enjoy one's own life is the good.
Many people in the modern world view "having a good time" or enjoying ones life as the goal of life. For example, it is advertised by atheists as a replacement for a belief in God.

Image

When one uses value in the world as "meaning", what will happen when that value is lost? For example, when life may appear unbearable, how will one possibly find motivation to overcome the problems?

The simplest departure from pure randomness implies value. This is evidence that all that can be seen in the world - from the simplest pattern onward - is value.

The origin of value is necessarily meaningful but cannot be value by the simple logical truth that something cannot originate from itself. This implies that a meaning of life is applicable on a fundamental level (a priori or "before value") and it implies that one is obligated to consider 'truth' and 'good' to be of a nature that lays outside the scope of an individual (i.e. to be of substance when it concerns morality and not a mere psychological illusion).
Impenitent
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Re: Should happiness be our goal?

Post by Impenitent »

there once was a soccer player who found happiness in scoring goals
and a goalie who found happiness preventing goals...

-Imp
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RCSaunders
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Re: Should happiness be our goal?

Post by RCSaunders »

theory wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:14 pm Many people in the modern world view "having a good time" or enjoying ones life as the goal of life.
What, "many people," believe or think is irrelevant to the truth.

You might find the discussion on this thread interesting:

Are You Enjoying Your Life?
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