REFLECTION

PAPER

IN

SEMINAR IV

Submitted by: Marvi Blaise M. Coching

LLB-2

SEMINAR IV - HAPPINESS
Are you ok?

The question that is usually asked by friends or acquaintances that passed me by. They

normally see me as a girl a girl who has thick brows, expressionless face with blank eyes

staring to space. They would depict if I have any problems or have fought with someone. It

makes me wonder, am I angry at something or someone or am I just an unhappy person.

People say our family is well of because we have a stable source of income that could

support us financially. We looked healthy enough as to have no sickness and worries. They

see us smile despite of the tragedy that happened to me and to us.

Foreigners say that Filipinos have this habit of smiling despite of the calamities or

misfortunes that happened to us. Does this show Filipinos are naturally happy? Do happiness

even come naturally? Do we even need to define what happiness is?

According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of

California, defines happiness as, the experience of joy, contentment or positive well-being,

combined with a sense that ones life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile. For Mahatma

Ghandi, Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

For Aristotle, happiness depends on us. That is, happiness depends on the cultivation of virtues.

He enshrines happiness as a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. In the Catholic

sense, happiness is the attainment of a certain desire of one being and not any desire but a

desire of higher degree. Furthermore, the effect of this fulfilled desire is so strong that one would

not need to desire anything else. Lastly, according to our discussions at class, happiness is a

state of well-being. God created the world for us, human beings, to be happy. He created a

place for us to enjoy happiness. The human activities that we exercised in our everyday lives

are purposive in doing something good, not just for us, but also for others.

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 But how do we know that this is the happiness. There are criterions as to happiness.

These are pleasant, self-sufficient and final. During class, we were asked what makes us happy,

mostly answered material possessions. We have to compare the things we chose to theses

criterions in order to find out if it is within the definition of happiness. For example, I chose

books as a form of happiness. It is pleasant for me, like what Aristotle said, happiness depends

on ourselves. Reading a book, for others, are not pleasant however for me it is rather

comforting. Next is self-sufficiency. Books, for me are a form of luxury. It may be an expensive

book or maybe bought from a sale, however, this is not part of our daily sufficient needs like

clothes, food or a home. Lastly, it is not final, because after you have finished it, you will still feel

as if there is something missing, then eventually will look for another new one to read thus I

have concluded that reading books before is my mode of happiness, however there is no finality

to it. I might say that the feeling I have felt from reading books are only pleasure. A pleasure

from escaping the realities of life and experiencing the magical place the book will behold you.

The subjective definition of happiness is categorized by food and drinks, money and

power, sex and honor. Each of these categories has its purpose in order for man to live a happy

life. Food and drinks serves as the fuel of man. We need food in order to survive. Others,

however find happiness through food. Science proves that eating chocolate reduces the level of

stress in our body that is why it became the comfort food of some people. Persons experiencing

break-ups from relationships tend to eat or mostly drink alcohol. However, these things do not

really solve the problem. They may experience a little comfort, but if that fades, the sadness

comes back again.

Sex is for procreation. It is a form of preservation of humanity through procreation.

People have sex in order to feel that they are wanted or yearned for. Mostly couples do this to

build up a family or to embrace the person they love. It is also for pleasure.

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 Honor is a privilege that is given. In the Chinese and Japanese culture, honor is very

important. It symbolizes your family as an important unit in the society. Regardless of the

financial standing, honor will be measured according to the behaviour of their family members.

And lastly, money and power. Money is a form of medium. Anywhere in the world,

money is used for commerce and trade. It is important to happiness because nowadays, money

makes everything move. Money buys freedom from worry about the basics in lifehousing,

food, clothing. Genetic makeup, life circumstances, achievements, marital status, social

relationships, even your neighboursall influence how happy you are. It is also a sign of power.

The value of your bank account defines the value of yourself to society. The more money you

have, the more chances are people will go to you. It is also interrelated to honor. In our country,

being a politician is an honourable job. In order to be one, you need the votes of the people.

Campaigns are needed that involves making of posters, going to events, helping people along

the way. In short, you need a lot of money in order for you to run and please the people.

The purpose of this paper is for us to choose among these four categories. However, as

I define happiness through any means like psychology or through philosophy, I realized that

these subjective form of happiness is not really the happiness that I have been searching. It is a

fact that these categories are put up her for a reason. Food and drinks, money and power, sex

and honor have reasons why they were categorized. It is still for the life of man. These are all

needed in order to live and they are all applicable to any race or preference, in short man in

general.

At first, I have thought that money and power is the best category for happiness because

if you have these, everything will just follow. Having money will provide you food, power to be

honourable, influence people and you can buy anything that you want. Either it be a necessity or

for the pleasure of buying it. The new generations of this age consider money already as a

SEMINAR IV - HAPPINESS
necessity of their everyday lives and cannot live without it. As I observed before having money,

they should work hard and earn. They should sacrifice their time of leisure to work. As I

understand it, before attaining happiness or knowing it in the first place, man experience of

having nothing. Having this void filled up, you will attain some sort of joy or elation. This is better

felt if youve known that you earned it. These experiences may be considered as the happiness

we felt after having worked to the fullest and achieving the end goal. This also applies to the

other categories. But, excessive of this category of happiness is bad. Others earn for their own

sustenance to live. They are contented on what they have thus they are experiencing

happiness. However, some believe that true happiness can be achieved if they have everything.

That is why some make extra efforts to work hard. There is nothing wrong to that, however, if

you have stepped on to someone or done something bad for your own gain or benefit, that is

already beyond the virtue of happiness.

However, does this mean before experiencing happiness, we should also experience the

void of having nothing? Like in a relationship, you will never know the value of the person you

love when they left you. Is filling up that void, will satisfy the human being yearning for it? If I go

back to what Aristotle said, it still depends on the person what he wants to fill up that void. Most

likely, for an unfortunate family, they lack the money sufficiently to meet ends their everyday life.

The void of having money, when given the opportunity to have some brings them happiness

because they will have enough to keep their lives moving. For couples who are planning to start

a family, their void is having that child to further connect their lives aside from marriage. There

are a lot of voids in our lives and it takes up any form. In a person, there could be more than

one because as a human being, our purpose to live is to have a life of happiness. Life without it

would be meaningless. In conclusion, I should ask myself what is lacking in my life.

Second, I considered food as the category that I am happy about. Every time I feel sad

or anxious, I always go to my favourite coffee shop or caf. I ordered the same drinks or food

SEMINAR IV - HAPPINESS
whenever Im feeling bad. This brightens my day and I always find comfort in them. In addition,

the atmosphere of the coffee shops and cafes makes me calm. However, excessive comfort

food is bad for your health.

These are the only two categories I considered. I dont know how honor is measured, but

if it is only accounted for the opinions and outlook of others, then I really dont mind. These

days, a person is only weighed and measured according to the amount in their bank accounts or

to the brand of clothes they wear and the thickness of make-up they use. What is happening

now is that people judge others through their personal appearance. First impression always

counts; however, the second always last. But how there would be a second if in the first he or

she was not already counted for? So, as any human being, we adapt to these changes in order

to move on. By doing so, they let the society decide for themselves how they should and ought

to be. For me it is a shallow form of happiness. Forgetting what you are and where you came

from is a selfish thing to do to attain the honor of happiness you want to achieve. But still in the

end, happiness depends on the people how they perceive it. Lastly is sex. They say it is

pleasurable. Ill just be quoting what they say. But, having sex can only be done between

through persons who have mutual feelings for each other even without labels. They say sex is

just a momentarily form of happiness. However, if it is done because there is a purpose, it gives

you the happiness you need.

After all these comparisons and explanations that I have written, Im sad to say I cannot

choose amongst these subjective forms of happiness. I know that I still have this void that needs

to be filled for me to know what my happiness is. I find pleasure in things no matter how simple

it is. Even small actions or compliments from persons, even though some I met were strangers,

are enough to give me joy as long as the things they do, they do it not just for themselves. You

may think that I am still not contented of what my life has been or what I have achieved through

the years I have been living, but I am still grateful. It does not mean; however, that I just take the

SEMINAR IV - HAPPINESS
categories for granted. They are in fact essential in our existence in this world that God has

provided for us. Some of these categories I usually need for my everyday of living and we

cannot live without them.

The key question Aristotle seeks to answer in his lectures in the Nicomachean Ethics is

"What is the ultimate purpose of human existence?" What is that end or goal for which we

should direct all of our activities? Everywhere we see people seeking pleasure, wealth, and a

good reputation. But while each of these has some value, none of them can occupy the place of

the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be self-

sufficient and final, "that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something

else" (Nicomachean Ethics, 1097a30-34), and it must be attainable by man. Aristotle claims that

nearly everyone would agree that happiness is the end which meets all these requirements. It is

easy enough to see that we desire money, pleasure, and honor only because we believe that

these goods will make us happy. It seems that all other goods are a means towards obtaining

happiness, while happiness is always an end in itself. (http://www.pursuit-of-

happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/). While searching the internet about what

happiness is, I stumbled upon this. That is why I cannot choose just one among the categories

of happiness because neither of them overpowers each other. Some I did consider and stated

my opinions, the same on those that I did not. I weighted the possibility that if I give too much

over one of them, it will cause an imbalance in the existence of my life. These categories do not

just give us happiness, but also has the effect of changing, not just our lives but also the lives of

others who are connected to us.

Not all of people have the equal opportunities in life. They also not have the same level

of understanding. For me, this will result to an unhappy state or it will tip the scale of balance. I

am not fond of seeing people having less in life. As I see them unhappy, it also makes me feel

the same way. Like what is happening to the world now. For example, the wars in the other

SEMINAR IV - HAPPINESS
countries where in innocent lives, especially the children, are completely wipe off because of the

greed of power one desires. God created the world for us human beings to live in a purposive

life and that purpose is to be happy. We exist so that we could be happy.

In the end, I will not just choose one among them, but all of them with the exercise of

virtue applied. That is how my happiness is to be achieved. Existing to be happy so that by your

existence you can also make others happy.

SEMINAR IV - HAPPINESS