Happiness and sadness have a very interesting relationship. Many philosophers have taken this view point and gone deep into the idea to find out what is really true about it. Some say that if you have never felt sad, then you would never know whether or not you are truly happy, because of this some see that teaching and think of it in a fairly depressing light. Though it is not to say that they can’t exist separately, without sadness there would not be true happiness. This idea is a very interesting topic because there are very few people who can go through their lives and not be unhappy for at least a brief period of time. There are countless ways that somebody could become unhappy. To name a few, one could lose a family member, end …show more content…
Each author discusses this idea in some capacity because it is such an intricate part of daily human lives. The relationship between happiness and sadness is that of give and take. With each emotion being so distant from the other, the change from happiness to sadness is an extreme difference, making each feeling much more powerful. There is no better feeling than coming out of a rut. When there is a period of time in your life where nothing is going right and everything that happens negatively impacts you in someway, you are due for some small victory at some point. When that finally comes and brings you out of the sadness, you feel far better than you would have if you weren 't already sad. The relationship also exists in a cyclical sense. There is a very similar time in Saint Augustine’s life from a more religious perspective. As a young boy, Saint Augustine decided to go out and steal a large amount of pears because he thought it would make him happy, but looking back at it from an older, wiser perspective, it did the opposite he became ashamed. Since there was a drastic difference in expectation and reality, Augustine became much more distraught. There is also an …show more content…
He goes to his two friends Ponticianus and Simplicianus, asking them about their conversions looking to see what they experienced and what they had to give up from their lives. First came the conversation with Simplicianus, where the two then talked over the works of Plato as Augustine recalls how “fortunate I was to not have stumbled on the writings of other philosophers” because their writings were lacking in honesty and general credibility. This helps to convince Saint Augustine of the benefits of living in the catholic faith because Plato’s writing consistently trended toward being about “the truth of God and his Word.” Later on into Book VIII we come to the conversation with Saint Augustine’s other friend, Ponticianus. The conversation with Ponticianus was mainly associated with the wonders of being a Catholic and the many incredible tales of those who follow in the Catholic faith. He then recalls the Story of conversion of two court officials at Trier, maintaining Saint Augustine 's complete and utter attention, he spoke of an experience he had where two men had a religious epiphany when reading from a book. The book, “The Life of Antony”, made the men want to renounce their
St. Augustine considers his mother as a crucial factor in his conversion to Catholicism. However through the analysis of his Confessions it leads me to believe that St. Augustine’s mother was not a decisive figure. Monica was in the background keeping him in thought and prayer however Augustine’s watershed moments came as a result of his own examination of readings as well as his conversations with his friends and mentors. Therefore I argue that Monica had delayed Augustine’s baptism and it was his own experiences that allowed him to come to God.
People push being happy on society as a total must in life; sadness is not an option. However, the research that has conducted to the study of happiness speaks otherwise. In this essay Sharon Begley's article "Happiness: Enough Already" critiques and analyzes societies need to be happy and the motivational affects it has on life. Begley believes that individuals do not always have to be happy, and being sad is okay and even good for us. She brings in the research of other professionals to build her claim that extreme constant happiness is not good for people. I strongly agree that we need to experience sadness to build motivation in life and character all around.
When reading ancient texts, they are often told through an omniscient point of view, such as The Odyssey or Gilgamesh, or they are written through another person’s perspective, such as The Republic. Confessions differs in that it is told from a first-person point of view, which makes it uniquely fascinating because we get to learn firsthand how Augustine’s actions, thoughts, and beliefs affected him. In comparison with the other, often mythical, texts, Augustine is a humanized perspective into the world—neither divine nor idolized; his story resembles that of many others as a man who grew to seek both conviction and resolution in his choices. The Confessions of Saint Augustine is, at its core, the journey of an everyman through his life—a concept not far removed from contemporary media. It is the culmination of his trials, tribulations, and efforts as a young man whose development influenced by the immense possibilities of the spiritual world that surrounded him.
Thomas Szasz states in his writing, “happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed to the living to the dead, now attributed by adults to children and children to adults.” I do not agree that happiness is an imaginary state of mind. Happiness is scientifically proven to in fact be a real and natural feeling produced by the body, but it is up to your brain to make you feel it. When you are in a pleasing situation, your brain responds to the pleasing stimuli and releases endorphins that spread through your body, making you feel good. We just call this feeling happiness.
Sharon Begley, author of “Happiness: Enough Already,” proclaims that dejection is not an unacceptable state of mind and there are experts that endorses gloomy feelings. This reading explicates that even though every-one should be happy there is no need to ignore sadness, as both emotions share key parts in everyone’s life. Sharon Begley and her team of specialists provides the information on why sadness is supplemental to a person’s life.
Many people normally call the moment of satisfaction and joy happiness, but they cannot properly define what happiness is and how to pursue it. Happiness is not measureable. Happiness can be shared with others, but cannot trade. Once people are in a stage of being happy, they enjoy their work, achievements and even feel better than others; however, how are they sure that they experience happiness? Is crying an emotional expression of enjoying happiness? In the article “Ignorance of Bliss,” Steve Salerno, a freelance writer, discusses about the value of happiness and explains to people about the feeling of being happy. He interprets his arguments and provides examples to enhance his ethos, but his ideas are not sufficient enough to persuade
Why does St. Augustine seek God? Through his Confessions we come to understand that he struggled a great deal with confusion about his faith, before finally and wholeheartedly accepting God into his life. But we never get a complete or explicit sense of what led Augustine to search for God in the first place. Did he feel a void in his life? Was he experiencing particular problems in other relationships that he thought a relationship with God would solve for him? Or perhaps he sought a sense of security from religion? A closer analysis of the text of St. Augustine’s Confessions will provide some insight into these fundamental questions.
Both Plato and Augustine offer unusual conceptions of what one must acquire to live a truly happy life. While the conventional view of happiness normally pertains to wealth, financial stability, and material possessions, Plato and Augustine suggest that true happiness is rooted in something independent of objects or people. Though dissimilar in their notions of that actual root, each respective philosophy views the attaining of that happiness as a path, a direction. Plato’s philosophy revolves around the attainment of eternal knowledge and achieving a metaphysical balance. Augustine also emphasizes one’s knowing the eternal, though his focus is upon living in humility before God. Both assert that human beings possess a natural desire for true happiness, and it is only through a path to something interminable that they will satisfy this desire.
Before we look into specifics, we’ll examine the history and development of “happiness” as a philosophy. Of course, the emotion of happiness has always existed, but it began to be seriously contemplated around 2,500 years ago by philosophers like Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle. Shortly after Buddha taught his followers his Noble Eight Fold Path (which we will talk about later), Aristotle was teaching that happiness is “dependent on the individual” (Aristotle).
This brings a further objection to Schopenhauer’s claim that all happiness stems from a suffering from a lack of something. This premise does not hold true in two scenarios. The first is when we feel happiness from something we did not expect to happen. For example, bumping into an old friend unexpectedly. We could not have been urging for it in the moment, therefore that happiness must be positive. Second, when we receive happiness in places where we only expected bad things. For example, when someone does not study for a test but does well anyway they receive unexpected
Happiness according scientific studies happiness comes from dopamine taking chemicals around the brain, which is a transmitter in the brain that controls the nervous system. These chemicals in the brain make us happy and sad. Happiness means different things to different people, so say Happiness comes from peace and other happiness comes from your expectations from being fulfilled. Happiness is like being sad or angry, it?s an emotion. Some people can get happiness from the simplest things such as reading your favorite book; other people are more complicated they see happiness as some thing that doesn?t really happen to them, but that?s not true because very person is different some people are happy all the time or at least most of the time, while some people say that there not happy are really just happy for a short period of time, weather it means just laughing at a joke, your happy for that couple of seconds.
Happiness is an inner state of well-being and fulfilment, and therefore it has to come from inside. Every individual has his or her own emotions and way of thinking and as a result of this no one can really say what happiness is and what happiness is not. However, universally, happiness is a by-product of a healthy attitude and viewpoint. Happiness exists in everyone whether they choose to acknowledge and believe it or not. It is not rare nor is it something only the elite have: everyone has it but not everyone recognizes it. Contentment is finding a light at the end of every dark tunnel and in order to experience this we must ignore the pessimism surrounding us and remind ourselves that happiness is not a materialistic object but a choice and frame of mind.
Happiness is a feeling that cannot be broken if strong enough, no matter how much sadness or hate is around you. Happiness can come from the smallest thing, for instance, music makes me happy and can easily change my mood, or when I am doing something I love my mood is easily changed. For others it could be whenever you do something well, or right and get recognition for it. It is the easiest feeling to be spread and given out but often neglected and forgotten about which is something we should all be more aware
Everyone has felt sadness at one point, for example when we lose a very important toy, we were made fun because of our funny hats, or we received a D on our English paper. These are all examples of different types of sadness or in other words sorrow. When I was a child I remember the first time I felt true sadness and that was when we moved away from my childhood home. I had to say good bye to my friends, my house, and even some family. I was devastated and hurt, but as I started to get used to the new house and met new people I started to feel happy again. Jalaluddin Rumi once said “sorrow prepares you for joy,’’ and I couldn’t agree more. (Good read.com). If we have never felt sorrow in our lives how could we possibly know what happiness is? And feeling this sadness or this sorrow makes us stronger, because we have learned to appreciate the joy we receive in life and it give us hope for next time when we feel sorrow that we will also once again feel joy at the end of the dark tunnel. Trust me there will always be another sorrowful moment in our lives and it will teach us a different lesson each time, making us a stronger
Happiness is a state of mind. The dictionary definition is "feelings of joy and pleasure mingled together”. A feeling of happiness is more than just an experience of joy or pleasure. It is a state of mind where the individual feels that “life is good”. As Aristotle says, “happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” I believe that everyone wants to be happy in life. One is abnormal if he prefers to be sad and alone.