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Full Idea
In the following discourse, happiness denotes pleasant sensation of any kind, or continued state of such sensations.
Gist of Idea
Happiness is a pleasant sensation, or continued state of such sensations
Source
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 4: The Moral Sense [1728], Intro)
Book Ref
'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.305
A Reaction
This is a very long way from Greek eudaimonia. Hutcheson seems to imply that I would be happy if I got high on drugs after my family had just burnt to death. Socrates points out that scratching an itch is a very pleasant sensation (Idea 132).
Related Idea
Idea 132 If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato]
| 6252 | Happiness is a pleasant sensation, or continued state of such sensations [Hutcheson] |
| 6253 | Reason is our power of finding out true propositions [Hutcheson] |
| 6254 | We are asked to follow God's ends because he is our benefactor, but why must we do that? [Hutcheson] |
| 6255 | Why may God not have a superior moral sense very similar to ours? [Hutcheson] |
| 6256 | Can't the moral sense make mistakes, as the other senses do? [Hutcheson] |
| 6257 | You can't form moral rules without an end, which needs feelings and a moral sense [Hutcheson] |