Mortimer J. Aristotle: Can You Choose Happiness?
Can You Choose Happiness?
Every morning when you wake up, you tell yourself that you will be happy, but is that a choice within your power? Is happiness a choice that you can make, or are some people destined to find happiness and others doomed to be unhappy?
In his TED talk, “Happy Maps,” Daniele Querica, a researcher for Yahoo! Labs, claims that through an application that he created, users will be able to choose to be happy on a daily basis. Querica’s application is a mapping system that functions in a way that is similar to common GPS applications, such as Google Maps. Querica was inspired to create this app because, after moving to Boston, MA, he found himself in a loop of efficiency, but this changed because Querica states, “... after …show more content…
Adler explores the complexity of Aristotle’s views of happiness. While Querica implied that people have the ability to choose to be happy, Aristotle has conflicting ideas of whether happiness can be chosen. According to Aristotle, “... a life must be completed -- finished -- before we can truly judge whether or not it has been a happy one” (Adler 3). Aristotle’s point is that happiness is not a temporary feeling but rather an overall value that is given to someone’s life after they have died. This can be taken in in two ways. First of all, “Aristotle tells us first that children cannot be happy; young people, he says, precisely because they are young are not happy, nor, for that matter, unhappy” (Adler 2). In other words, Aristotle believes that children are unable to choose to be happy because they have not lived long enough to determine the quality of their life, which, as you will remember, is Aristotle’s definition of happiness. However, as Adler implies, Aristotle’s ideas are contradictory because, on one hand, Aristotle states that young people cannot choose happiness, but at the same time, Aristotle believes happiness is an accumulation of choices, which implies that perhaps the choices that young people make can begin their journey of obtaining happiness. This contradiction is pointed out when Adler states, “[we are required] to make choices every day of our lives, and carry out our choices in action” (5). Adler’s point is that Aristotle’s definition of happiness requires a look into all of the choices an individual makes until they die because that is how it is determined if a person’s life was happy or not. Due to this, Aristotle claims young people cannot choose to be happy, but they choices that they make are taken into consideration later in their life. I believe that, after taking all of this into consideration, Aristotle’s beliefs align more
Every morning when you wake up, you tell yourself that you will be happy, but is that a choice within your power? Is happiness a choice that you can make, or are some people destined to find happiness and others doomed to be unhappy?
In his TED talk, “Happy Maps,” Daniele Querica, a researcher for Yahoo! Labs, claims that through an application that he created, users will be able to choose to be happy on a daily basis. Querica’s application is a mapping system that functions in a way that is similar to common GPS applications, such as Google Maps. Querica was inspired to create this app because, after moving to Boston, MA, he found himself in a loop of efficiency, but this changed because Querica states, “... after …show more content…
Adler explores the complexity of Aristotle’s views of happiness. While Querica implied that people have the ability to choose to be happy, Aristotle has conflicting ideas of whether happiness can be chosen. According to Aristotle, “... a life must be completed -- finished -- before we can truly judge whether or not it has been a happy one” (Adler 3). Aristotle’s point is that happiness is not a temporary feeling but rather an overall value that is given to someone’s life after they have died. This can be taken in in two ways. First of all, “Aristotle tells us first that children cannot be happy; young people, he says, precisely because they are young are not happy, nor, for that matter, unhappy” (Adler 2). In other words, Aristotle believes that children are unable to choose to be happy because they have not lived long enough to determine the quality of their life, which, as you will remember, is Aristotle’s definition of happiness. However, as Adler implies, Aristotle’s ideas are contradictory because, on one hand, Aristotle states that young people cannot choose happiness, but at the same time, Aristotle believes happiness is an accumulation of choices, which implies that perhaps the choices that young people make can begin their journey of obtaining happiness. This contradiction is pointed out when Adler states, “[we are required] to make choices every day of our lives, and carry out our choices in action” (5). Adler’s point is that Aristotle’s definition of happiness requires a look into all of the choices an individual makes until they die because that is how it is determined if a person’s life was happy or not. Due to this, Aristotle claims young people cannot choose to be happy, but they choices that they make are taken into consideration later in their life. I believe that, after taking all of this into consideration, Aristotle’s beliefs align more