< An Ethical Concept I Can't Grasp

~marginalia

Yes. I this entire part of the field of ethics is plagued this fundamental misconception about emotional states: They aren't numbers you can tally up. You would think, living in a world today with historically unprecedented degrees of material wealth, access to culture, social equality, safety, comfort, pretty much any external goods you can think of; that we would be happy all the time. After all, these are things that when we are given access to them, we are happy. Our ancestors would think we were royalty, angels even. But we are not happy all the time. That's not how happiness works. Aside from temporary disturbances toward happiness or discontent, we're all mostly at some sort of baseline. You win the lottery and you are happy for a while, but then it's just the new normal; you still have problems. You lose a loved one, and you are sad for a while, but then it's normal again; you can still be happy. If you're depressed that baseline is shifted toward the dour, but it's still a baseline.

The discussion of ethics in the western tradition originally started out as a discussion on which manner of living was the best, from a purely selfish point of view. Plato pointed out the inherent contradiction in doing things you think are bad--they are the things you *don't* think should be done. People who do bad things are essentially confused about what is good. (As an aside:" do|lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" is Cicero basically repeating a similar notion a few hundred years later -- in paraphrase: [nobody] loves [or seeks] pain for the sake of pain itself.)

The discussion of ethics has gradually shifted toward a discussion of civic virtues, i.e. which manner of citizen is the best for society, and I think viewing happiness as a social problem is where we tripped up.

The only person who has the means to truly affect someone's well-being is that person itself, through their judgements and actions. Anything else is the textbook definition of a codependent relationship. That's bad if it's just two people, but even worse if it's on a societal scale. You cannot take responsibility for other peoples' happiness; not only will you fail, but you will make yourself miserable in the process.

That doesn't go to say you shouldn't contribute to society or help other people, there are purely selfish reasons to do that. Contributing to a common goal feels really meaningful and good. It makes you feel like you belong, like you live in society rather than on it. Have you ever heard someone complain about how proud they feel? Have you ever heard some celebrate feeling like their life lacks meaning? I haven't.

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