Recap from Previous Lesson

My Endeavours Gain? Or Pain?

MaskNegative to Positive

ThoughtsPig and Cow story

-> giving and receiving

QUESTION

What can or is likely to make you happy?

EPICURUS’ HAPPINESS

•Tele-transport experiment

•Free from pain and anxiety

EPICURUS’ HAPPINESS

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http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-DU427_MGMMAC_G_20090603052814.jpg

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

EUDAIMONIA (you-dee-mo-nea)

Happiness FulfillmentSatisfactionWell-being

(the ultimate goal in living; makes life worth living )

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

What is the ultimate goal that makes

life worth living?1) Attained for it’s own sake, not for the sake

of something else2) Independent (nothing else can be added to

make it better)3) The end that justifies all prior actions to be

good eg. assuring your parents, maintaining friendship

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

In shortA good end is one that

once you have it you don’t need more of it &

you don’t attain it to get something else.

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Let’s look at what plants, animals and

humans are capable of doing…

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICSPLANTS Take in

food and grow

ANIMALS Take in food and grow

Respond with instincts

Human Beings

Take in food and grow

Respond with instincts Use

Reason

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Arête(ah-rer-tey) or Virtue or Excellence of a thing

= giftedness = capabilities

= function

2 kinds of Human arête:

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Virtues of Intellect

• Person is good at problem-solving, inference, interpretation, or reasoning concerning either

theoretical or practical matters.• These include wisdom, prudence, and

comprehension.• Develop skills like baking, financial

management, athletics etc.

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Virtues of Character

Display desirable quality of behaviour such as courage, benevolence, generosity etc.

Aristotle believes that anything T is good at being that kind of thing T if and only if it is

good at achieving its purpose.

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

Purpose• Use

reason

Arete (capabilities)• Enable them to

blossom

Repeat• Become

Virtuous (abilities actualised to max)

Eudaimonia• Life worth living

and lived well

ARISTOTLE On HAPPINESS

HAPPINESS

Good Character

Good Habits (constant practise “we are what we repeatedly do”)

Good Actions

Good Thoughts

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

GOLDEN MEANThe right balance between two extremes, the

extreme of excess and the extreme of deficiency

Moderation in emotions, attitudes and behaviour

Subjected to individual’s abilities and needs (eg. A labourer’s amt of food intake vs a typist’s)

Not applicable for vices

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICSSphere of

Existence

Deficiency Mean Excess

Underlying passion confidence

Cowardice Courage Rashness

Attitude towards the (mis)fortunes of

others

Spite, gloating

Righteous indignation

envy

Attitude toward self

ServilitySelf-deprecation

Proper Self-Love

Proper PrideSelf-Respect

ArroganceConceitEgoism

NarcissismVanity

Attitude towardoffenses of others

Ignoring them

Being a Doormat

AngerForgiveness

Understanding

RevengeGrudge

Resentment

Attitude toward good

deeds of others

SuspicionEnvy

Ignoring them

GratitudeAdmiration

Over indebtedness

Attitude toward our

own offenses

IndifferenceRemorselessness

Downplaying

Agent RegretRemorse

Making AmendsLearning from them

Self-Forgiveness

Toxic GuiltScrupulosity

Shame

Attitude towardour friends

Indifference Loyalty Obsequiousness

DEONTOLOGY

• Fulfil moral duties and obligations regardless of end results. • It is the motives that determine

if an action is morally right or wrong, not the consequences.

DEONTOLOGY

• Consider the statement “He didn’t do what was expected.”•Motives : a) “I don’t want to.”

b) “I don’t know how to.” c) “I can’t.”

Eg. Parents’ Maintenance Act, Absent parents, Giving up seat, hiding truth

KANTIAN ETHICSDEONTOLOGICAL / NON-

CONSEQUENTIALIST

Based On Reason And Will

Requires Discipline And Self Control

Requires Doing The Right Thing For The Right Reason

ETHICS IS NOT CONTINGENT UPON ONE’S FEELINGS NOR UPON THE CULTURE;

RATHER, IT IS ABSOLUTE (CATEGORICAL)

KANTIAN ETHICS3 Characteristics of

Kant’s Categorical Imperative:• Act only according to that maxim by which you can

also will that it would become a universal law.• Act in such a way that you always treat humanity,

whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.

• Act as though you were, through your maxims, a law-making member of a kingdom of ends (an ideal world of self-directed individuals).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deontological_ethics

QUESTIONS OF A DEONTOLOGIST

•What would I do if everyone were to follow my example?

• Would I be using the person as a means or as an end?

Kant’s Example # 1

A man reduced to despair contemplates suicide:

Is suicide universalizable? No!

Does it treat oneself as a means or as an end? As a means.

Therefore, the categorical imperative dictates that suicide is morally wrong.

Kant’s Example # 2

A man in need of money thinks about borrowing money and realizes he will

have to promise to repay it even though he knows he cannot.

Is such behavior universalizable?Would he be using the person as a

means or as an end?

Kant’s Example # 3

A person has a talent which he could develop to benefit himself and others, but he prefers not to work to improve the talent.

Is such behavior universalizable?Would he be using himself as a means or

as an end?

Kant’s Example # 4

A prosperous person is asked for charitable help. He considers not helping.

Is such behavior universalizable?Would he be using the person as a means

or as an end?

DEONTOLOGICAL QUOTES

• Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world. ~Immanuel KantRead more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/immanuel_kant.html#ixzz1Js5nYDJL

• In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so. ~Immanuel Kant Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/immanuel_kant.html#ixzz1Js6UdEPe

Buddhism’s Point of View

The gratification of desires is not happiness.

Genuine happiness can only be achieved when we transform our way of life from the unthinking pursuit of pleasure to one

committed to enriching our inner lives, when we focus on “being more” rather than simply

having more.~Buddhist Philosopher Daisaku Ikeda

http://www.ikedaquotes.org/happiness.html

Christianity’s Point Of ViewSt Augustine’s City of God

Like Plato’s Ideal Form in Republic, our experiences are ideas of what an ideal would be.

Our experience of happiness on earth are just reflections of the ultimate goodness, illusions and not real.

Relying our happiness on earthly things will bring us suffering, emptiness and disillusionment.

Earth is not the place for us to hope for permanent happiness. Has to be found in ideal, that is God , who is

LOVE.

Christianity’s Point Of View“If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but

do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Christianity’s Point Of View

“… the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

JOURNAL ENTRY

How shall I attain my Eudaimonia?

HAPPY ENDING…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ezrZScCow&feature=related