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Single Idea 1386
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / c. Value of happiness
]
Full Idea
A concern for happiness is the unavoidable concomitant of consciousness; that which is conscious of pleasure and pain, desiring that that self that is conscious should be happy.
Gist of Idea
A concern for happiness is the inevitable result of consciousness
Source
John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.27.26)
Book Ref
Locke,John: 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding', ed/tr. Nidditch,P.H. [OUP 1979], p.346
A Reaction
It is an interesting question whether a being would be concerned with 'happiness' if they were conscious thinkers, but lacking pleasure and pain. Presumably they would desire eudaimonia - that their life go well, in some way.
The
14 ideas
with the same theme
[how important is happiness?]:
2681
|
Aristotle is unsure about eudaimonia because he is unsure what people are
[Nagel on Aristotle]
|
5132
|
Goods like pleasure are chosen partly for happiness, but happiness is chosen just for itself
[Aristotle]
|
30
|
Happiness is perfect and self-sufficient, the end of all action
[Aristotle]
|
14522
|
What happens to me if I obtain all my desires, and what if I fail?
[Epicurus]
|
22985
|
Everyone wants happiness
[Augustine]
|
6210
|
Life has no end (not even happiness), because we have desires, which presuppose a further end
[Hobbes]
|
1386
|
A concern for happiness is the inevitable result of consciousness
[Locke]
|
1454
|
Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness
[Kant]
|
21061
|
Duty does not aim at an end, but gives rise to universal happiness as aim of the will
[Kant]
|
2891
|
Only the English actually strive after happiness
[Nietzsche]
|
4500
|
It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail
[Nietzsche]
|
4558
|
We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms
[Nietzsche]
|
18307
|
I want my work, not happiness!
[Nietzsche]
|
7983
|
Good versus evil has been banefully reduced to happiness versus misfortune
[Baudrillard]
|