Philosophy of Happiness Installment #2

Danielle Casteel

Dr. Oliver

12/13/17

Philosophy of Happiness

Installment #2

To continue my discussion about the philosophy of happiness, I will be talking about Socrates point of view on it. In my last post, I briefly went over Plato’s and Aristotle’s definition of happiness and their reasoning behind it. With that being said, Socrates thoughts on happiness is similar to Plato’s. Socrates states, “All human beings naturally desire happiness… Pleasure is not the goal of existence, however, but rather an integral aspect of the exercise of virtue in a fully human life.”

            Reading over that, he does have basically the same idea as Plato. Everyone in life can and will experience happiness multiple times in their lives. On the other hand of Aristotle mentioning that happiness is one main goal in life to achieve, Socrates disagrees. With him saying that pleasure is not the goal of existence, he declares that encountering happiness comes naturally, or through little effort. Even if a person is being stubborn and does not want to be happy for however long, will still encounter some sort of happiness. For example, maybe being to themselves makes them happy or content. Socrates actually has studied the three dialogues on happiness which are the Euthydemus, the Symposium, and the Republic.

             The Euthydemus is the first piece of philosophy to discuss the concept of happiness. When he first discussed it over 2400 years ago, he established two main ideas. The first one states, “Happiness is what all people desire, since it is always the end goal of our activities, it is an unconditional good.” The second idea states, “Happiness does not depend on external things, but rather on how those things are used.” Thinking about both of these points, it is clear to understand what Socrates is saying. In my opinion, it is saying that one should be happy with what they have and not letting their happiness depend on what they want.

            The Symposium is when the topic of happiness takes places at a dinner party. This dialogue occurs when each person at the dinner party takes a turn to honor the god of love and desire. It was said that this certain god, Eros, is the one capable of bringing everyone happiness, and eliminates evil.

            The Republic is a masterpiece that Socrates tries to prove that the just person is happier than the unjust person. He also makes a point of what happiness is and the relationship between happiness and pleasure.

            With all that being said, happiness is something that is obtainable and teachable through human effort. Once again, pleasure is not the goal of happiness in Socrates opinion, but is impossible to live a life without encounter some sort of happiness.