2. Happiness



  1.  What is happiness?

Currently all men aspire to be happy in an almost obsessive way, following the mirage of the welfare society. However, data are increasingly negative due to increase in suicide, separation, divorce and mental illness caused by the existential vacuum. Many people seek happiness in sex, drugs, pleasure and material goods possessions. But happiness is not there.    

There is a clear paradox in the conquest of happiness: The more men are striving to achieve it, the more it seems to get away from their hands and become a nostalgic term always unsatisfied.    

We can distinguish between the foundation-origin of that feeling and the effect-happiness.    

If a man seeks directly the effect-happiness does not ever get it, because first he has to hope the foundation-origin. For many authors the foundation of happiness is the development of our faculties or personal perfection. It also means to help and serve other people, ensure that others are ok. The effect-happiness (the pleasure and joy) is a subjective consequence of the perfection conquered.    

The foundation of happiness consists in the perfection of the operational faculties when the man gets goods or particular purposes, for example, understand a truth or perform a well done job. The effect-happiness or joy is a consequence of the previous conquest.    

For Aristotle, the happiness is not in the ephemeral (the sensitive pleasures, things) but in the "good life" (the honest life according to the virtue). For this author the happiness is to live and act well.

(Painting: Campesinos en el hogar. AERTSEN, Pieter. Museo Mayer der Beregh. Antwerp. Países Bajos)

  A) Select an answer

 • Some people seek happiness in a/an... way

 • Currently, the number of... increases

 • There are mental illnesses caused by the... vacuum

 • Some people seek happiness in the

 • The development of the faculties is the

 • The consequence of that foundation produces the

 • For Aristotle, happiness is in the... life



  2. Utilitarianism

According to the dictionary "utilitarianism" is a modern philosophical doctrine that considers the utility as a moral principle. Likewise, "utility" is what only tends toward what is useful; I mean what produces benefit, comfort, profit or interest. Consequently, everything that we consider a good is because of the utility that it can produce.    

In the civilization of utilitarianism people are considered as things. In this way, the woman can become an object for man, children an obstacle to parents and the family an institution that complicates the freedom of its members. This utilitarian happiness that is looking for freedom without responsibility is the antithesis of love. It does not correspond at all with a vital project to the "good life", to the personal treatment and to the true love.

(Painting: El prestamista y su esposa. MASSYS, Quentin. Museo de Louvre. París)

  B) Select an answer

 • For utilitarianism, the moral principle is the

 • It is useful what produces a/an

 • For some people, in the utility is all the

 • In utilitarianism, people are considered as

 • For the man, the woman would be a/an

 • Utilitarianism seeks freedom without

 • Utilitarianism is the antithesis of

  3. Marital happiness

The utilitarianism in married life causes shared egoism and the relationship is reduced to a reciprocal use of man and woman. It is a love without any demand, and therefore it is false and without beauty.    

On the contrary, a principle of married life would be: each spouse is more worried about the life of the loved one that the proper life. The spouse forgets himself/herself, pleasures and needs to focus on the other and adapts to him/her, without repair in the effort that it might mean.

(Painting: Mujer leyendo la Biblia. DOU, Gerrit. Museo Rijks. Amsterdam)

  C) Select an answer

 • Utilitarianism in marriage causes

 • Between men and women there is a... use.

 • Utilitarianism causes love without

 • Each spouse should worry about the... life.

 • The good spouse focuses on the

 • Each one must... the other.




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®Arturo Ramo García.-Record of intellectual property of Teruel (Spain) No 141, of 29-IX-1999 Plaza Playa de Aro, 3, 1º DO 44002-TERUEL