Shifting Gears #3: Smile Like You Mean It

1. Shifting Gears #3: Smile Like You Mean It Feraco Myth to Science Fiction 16 April 2010

2. What is Happiness? • I Only Want to Make You Smile • Return of the Quotes • The Teleological Approach to Goodness (and Happiness!) • Deontology vs. Teleology – Which One Will You Choose? • Becoming Worthy of Happiness • The Pursuit of Happ(y)ness • Everything is Connected – For Better or Worse • Why Do We Sabotage Ourselves? • “I Have Known Bruises…”

5. Return of the Quotes! • Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness. Immanuel Kant • We are always getting ready to live but never living. Ralph Waldo Emerson • Were we always the way Emerson suggests we are? • Is Kant right?

6. On With the Aristotle… • Aristotle – one of our great minds – took what we call a teleological approach to “good” • Telos: Greek – meanings vary from “bullseye” and “goal” to “purpose” • To him, something was good when it “fulfilled its destiny” – when it completed a goal, when it lives up to the expectations that led to its importance to begin with

7. The Death Cab Paradox • If I tell you that I plan to teach about a “good book,” I’m really signaling to you that the book satisfies my criteria for goodness • Perhaps I’ve decided it’s a “good book” because I believe books have to contain exciting moments in order to be good (and it has them), or because I decided that good books need interesting characters (and it has them) • However, if you believe that “good” books have to have a predictable story/an ending that “doesn’t make you think” (which it doesn’t have), however, you won’t think the book is very good at all • Your expectations for the book were different from mine • This explains the “Death Cab Paradox” – we judge it differently because we have different expectations for the music we hear (i.e. you need songs to have energy, or to be technically difficult – but I need them to have melody and good lyrics)

8. Teleology, Belief, and Choice • Teleology, therefore, allows us to give things purposes of our choosing – and for us to be alternately satisfied or disappointed by how well something lives up to that “reason for being” • This, in turn, allows us to develop morals and ethics • Remember that we established that morals and ethics, for good or for ill, provide us with a framework for our interpretations – and therefore our goals!

9. Teleology, Belief, and Choice Continued • Our goals become our reason for being – and our sense of satisfaction becomes dependent on how well we live up to our expectations and hopes for ourselves • Without goals, we have nothing to aim for, and therefore nothing to make us satisfied • Our goals can be inwardly directed (something that satisfies us) or outwardly directed (something that satisfies someone else)

10. Teleology, Belief, and Choice Continued • In short, our morality becomes the means by which we can earn happiness • If our morality is determined by both choice and experience, then one could argue that we all control whether we’ll be happy • Emerson’s and Kant’s quotes seem more interesting in this context

11. On the One Hand, On the Other… • On the one hand, we have to live at some point – we have to do something instead of just talking about it, or we’ll never satisfy those goals • On the other hand, we can still be happy if we plan as well as live; we may not achieve full satisfaction all at once, but we’ll always be hitting some benchmark (before moving on to the next goal so we can experience new happiness!)

12. Deontology • Now let’s move on to Kant’s argument; can those goals become the ways in which we make ourselves worthy of happiness? • Kant was what we call a deontologist – someone who believes that goodness grows out of morals, rather than the other way around (which we argued earlier) • According to Kant, morality meant that you acted on the basis of what you were expected to do alone – meaning that you were really pleasing to a teleologist!

13. Unfortunately… • Unfortunately, Kant also believed that anything other than an “expectation imperative” made an action immoral • Therefore, if you run around the track because your coach expects you to go run around the track, you’ve acted morally – but if you ran just because you wanted to enjoy it, you’ve compromised your morals because it’s not your duty to have fun!

14. That’s…Different • Talk about relative values – we were confused about whether Death Cab for Cutie or “One Tree Hill” could be good, and now Kant wants us to look at ourselves completely differently! • It’s an interesting way to look at both happiness and morality, if you think about it • Do you prefer Kant’s system, or Aristotle’s?

15. The Resistance • Many resist deontology specifically because it seems to deem spontaneous, independent happiness as unhealthy – whereas teleology views it as the natural outgrowth of meeting one’s own expectations • In this case, the pursuit of happiness is incredibly important – rather than making our morals determine our level of satisfaction, we switch the relationship around

16. Morals Built on Sand • If you notice this, it’s easy to see how humans can become worthy of happiness in their own eyes – just adjust your morals, and your goals will adjust as well • It’s the reason why people can be satisfied while underachieving – they’ve changed their morals to the point that true excellence no longer matters • Can you prove that laziness exists? • Are they worthy of happiness? Is everyone worthy of it (which would mean Kant was wrong), or should we be doing something in order to deserve our good fortune (karma, caution, compassion, etc.)?

17. The Pursuit of Happ(y)ness • Moving forward, we’ve covered the highs and lows of deontological and teleological approaches to morality and happiness. • Is there more to happiness than the simple fulfillment of moral imperatives – which seem to be the basis of both systems? • We contrasted what made you happy when you were five versus what makes you happy now • Are you more concerned with the well-being of others now that you’re older? • How have you changed? Is it all a matter of more complicated goals? Perhaps self-awareness?

18. The Pursuit of Happ(y)ness Continued • Was it easier to be happier when you were younger? • This is a cousin of the question about which happiness is “better” – your mature version or your prior one • When did you think more about your own happiness – then, or now? • What do you intend to get out of each day? • If you have no intentions, how can you have goals? • If you have no goals, Aristotle doesn’t believe you can be truly happy • You can be pleasantly surprised – but is a life spent waiting for intermittent pleasant surprises worth living?

19. Arrows and Leaves • True happiness seems to result from effort – the satisfaction that’s earned is better than the satisfaction that’s handed out • In other words, it’s better to be the arrow than the leaf • After all, the vast majority of you decided that it was important to make your own moral code – and to make your own decisions rather than allow someone to control you, even if that control led you down a comfortable path

20. …And It Goes Back to Choice and Morality • In this way, choice, morality, and happiness seem interrelated • If we have free will, we can decide how to interpret our experiences • We can allow those interpretations to shape our morals • Our morals, in turn, shape our future choices • By shaping our choices, our morals shape our goals – and our goals shape our happiness!

21. Is Everything Really That Simple? • Well, not necessarily • We may not have free will • We do things that violate our morals or our ethics; sometimes we attempt to rationalize these actions, while at other times we don’t even try • We can go through life passively, drifting leaf-like from day to day without even noticing the passing of time – or that we’re not growing • We make the choices that ordinarily bring us happiness harder; by procrastinating, for example, we stain the “fun things” we do in the meantime with a hidden dread, a knowledge that everything gets worse when this experience ends. • This ensures that we won’t have as much fun as we should be having!

22. The Free Will to Fail • If happiness is such an important human concern – and if great minds seem to have devised ways to find it – why do we still sabotage ourselves? • In this case, we can blame our ability to choose incorrectly – the free will to make a bad decision • This is a choice that, judging by our discussions, you treasure – so this is OK!

23. Frances Shand Kydd • In short, we may love pursuing happiness successfully – but we seem to love our ability to be disappointed almost as much, because that disappointment both seems to validate our free will…and to make our successes all the sweeter. • “You need to know bruises to know blessings, and I have known both.”

24. Now It’s Your Turn! • Yesterday, you discussed morality • Today, I’d like you to articulate your personal philosophy regarding happiness • Best of luck!