Search For The Good: Pleasure and Happiness

PART I


The concept of what it means to be good has plagued a lot of thinkers in years, since what does it actually mean to be good? And are humans truly good? How will we be able to quantify or understand what being good is, when society in itself has established certain proceedings and rules to benefit itself, the "itself" referring to previous rulers who made it their intention for the laws to serve them, and benefitting their constituents comes at a second thought - this is purely conjecture and a definite when living in a third world country. 


When they established all those rules, one is prescribed as to what is "good" and what is "evil". In a religious concept, these two were made out of texts that have existed for a long time, and I do agree some of them make sense, such as preserving our species or doing good to others without expecting anything in return. But like all ancient text pieces, they do have their flaws, in which it separates humans from one another, condemning homosexuals or preventing eating of certain food. 


It does create a divide, and in doing so, we examine the whole text pieces as something that promotes "good" to serve certain criteria. When we also talk about "goodness" there are a lot of debates or propositions on what it is, what it should be, or if it truly exists. One supposes that all pleasurable things must mean that it is good - quite a hedonistic approach that Schopenhauer would truly scoff upon and bury in his dilemma of the human life - but when we say all pleasurable things must mean good, it gives off another problem, what is pleasurable to one may be displeasing to the other.


Take for example a morning commute, you left your earphones or AirPods or any listening attachment tool, and without music or listening to your favorite podcast, you'd think the whole commute would bring you the least pleasurable moment. So what do you do? You play out numb music meant to make you happy or bring the utmost pleasure at that certain moment. But this does not take into account what others would feel, some would be displeased, or enjoy it. In this case, or in other cases where the pleasure is only being benefitted by one, does that make the proposition "all pleasurable things are good" true?




Well, we can also argue that the hedonistic approach, could be that goodness comes from pleasurable things at the maximum benefit, wherein 90% of the time, it is pleasurable. But in doing so, does ignoring the 10% which finds it unpleasurable make it better? 

Also, can we associate happiness with goodness?



With this principle, let's assume that what makes you happy is what is good. This again ignores the external environment, and only focuses on its subjectivity. But when we apply "utilitarianism" which is the doctrine, wherein the most ethical choice should be the one that benefits the majority, even at the cost of a certain number of people, could it be that goodness is achievable when it makes the majority of the people "happy"? 


When we examine these certain viewpoints, utilitarianism, and hedonism, not accounting for other philosophical ideologies or ethical philosophies at the moment. We can see that it stems from wanting the most from a certain action and results in the comfort of the majority of the people. Analyzing this, from my own perspective, it poses another question.


Is it actually "good" when we accept that a certain minority must suffer for the benefit of all?



Is that what "goodness" should be? 


END OF ENTRY#1

Note: This will be a series of compositions in my own perspective, trying to search for the meaning of what it means to be good.





09132020D

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