41901 Group Discussion

Philz

• What is happiness? • Is it possible for people to be equally happy by doing different things? • Can happiness be observed by anyone outside of one’s own person?

Don't think it is possible to determine whether someone is actually happy. Just can't be done." We felt it would be more effective to ask three questions directly to Pat and Lee regarding what they felt "happiness" was and how they felt their own lives met the criteria they had defined. Asking three questions to decide who is happier assumes that there is a set a universal criteria for achieving happiness and that meeting or failing to meet these objectives would make a person more, or less, happy. We disagreed with this assumption.

AKNDM

Did they act morally? Did they achieve their realistic life goals? Are they satisfied with their life?"

The Alfinos

"We reject the question on the basis that happiness is innately subjective. Objective inquiries about happiness tend to focus on concrete things, such as money, or family, or health, whereas we posit that happiness results from the far more abstract question: what do we value? When our lives align with what we truly, authentically value, we are in theory, happy. This necessitates that happiness is simply innately different for each and every person, because we each value different things (though obviously influences such as culture group us into groups with similar [but not identical] values).

Question: what would Pat and Lee's happiness look like if you took all their possessions away? How do material things influence happiness? "

MMMS

We all agree that happiness is subjective. So the first question would be is there a way to measure happiness between two different people? If this isn't true, then the rest of the question can not be determined. If happiness is based on pleasure, can you rank intrinsic pleasures between two different people? Which again, if you can't do this than we will never know who was happier. Does someone need to experience low points in life (such as a death in the family etc.) to achieve a higher level of happiness?