Happiness is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain PDF

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1. Do you agree that happiness is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, and that all actions are directed toward pleasure? Justify your answer. In my opinion, happiness is not the pursuit of pleasure. It is because there is a huge difference between happiness and pleasure. Pleasure is only a momentary feeling; it is short-lived. For example, is having a good meal. Pleasure has to do with the positive experiences of our senses, and with good things happening. Pleasurable experiences can give us momentary feelings of happiness, but this happiness does not last long because it is dependent upon external events and experiences. On the other hand, unlike pleasure, happiness is long-lived. Happiness is something we create within ourselves. For some, it is a sense of peace, joy, contentment, and satisfaction. For others, it might be a sense of being energized, connected with the world, exhilarated, passionate, and purposeful. I also disagree that happiness is the avoidance of pain. Happiness is not the absence of pain. We are only deluded on the fact that we are not happy every time we are in pain. According to a Research Psychologist named Brock Bastian, he argues that a willingness to experience pain is crucial to our pursuit of genuine happiness, and that our efforts to escape unpleasantness or seek out only the positive in fact weaken us in managing life’s inevitable difficulties. Changing the value of pain, changing the way we think about it, our expectations of it is a very, very important pathway to changing how we can cope with it. With the last statement about our actions being directed to pleasure, I also disagree. It is because according to Aristotle, happiness is the only end or good that we desire. Simply means, it is because we desire happiness that is why we acted in a way to achieve things. We do not only think of what pleasure we can get from our actions, but we consider if we will be happy after accomplishment of such actions. 2. Is it justifiable to build a basketball court because there are basketball fans, rather than to build a hospital because there are fewer sick people? Explain your answer. In my opinion, it is not justifiable to build a basketball court just because there are basketball fans instead of building a hospital for the few sick people. Even though there are few people who are sick does not justify that we do not need to build a hospital. We must think of others’ welfare and not focus on things that are only for entertainment. I think health is more necessary that basketball even though it is a sport and good for the health, it does not change the fact that

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