What is human happiness?
When I was little, a piece of candy, or just one simple doll would gratify me. I felt love and all I asked for were just always enough. I would not complain for more and I would not question the word "happiness". All I know is when I smile, that is the bliss of my life. Therefore, I do not over think this word or the definition of it. Somehow when I grew up, both I and the others around me have redefined it for me.
Reading Banach's lecture, he triggers my realization. But simultaneously, he has redefined “human happiness” that makes me feel like all my old memories of happiness have never existed. This sounds very disappointed. However, although his lecture makes so much sense in certain ways, I do not believe "there are no external values that we can live up to". If that is true, why do I still exist?
Who is he to decide whether “rolling a ball up a hill” could not be happy “eternally”? Everybody has their own values in life and things to reach for. Perhaps pursuing happiness “from within is infinitely better than the value one vainly attempts to get from outside”, but it doesn’t mean receiving happiness externally is not valuable. I even doubt if Banach is getting to the extreme and often times, struggles for happiness. If every human being on this earth has to get happiness as the way Banach has described, then we will never be free. I paused for awhile, and asked myself. Does he mean in order to be free; we have to give up happiness?
I certainly do not believe Banach is making any sense in his lecture since every argument that he talked about became a contradiction. Such as when he stated “no external viewpoint from which our life can be viewed to be valuable”, and “loss of our external sources of values are the necessary price of a greater value and happiness that comes from within ourselves” If that is what he meant, aren’t the “important lesson” from external is more valuable than the values within? Without making the mistakes and realized the disappointment, we will never know the external values are more valuable. To me, external values are necessary and often more valuable because they are the origins that lead me to the next-internal values.
Nevertheless, Banach’s lecture is often frustrated. Before he mentioned “one loses the promise of external value, but they find a more real happiness”, I never thought about there are real and fake happiness. Because to me, only “true happiness” are consider happiness. Why would people consider something that is not real “happiness”? Also, if people did not want to be the one that he suggested in his lecture, but trying to achieve happiness. That person is not being “authentic”. I do believe people find their own way to receive happiness, and what happiness really is are based on their own definition. This connects to part I of his lecture that we cannot feel how others’ feel and we are all “alone” in our own world. If that is the case, how is he able to know whether what we feel is not true happiness?
After reading his lecture, I learned that he is a hypocrite.
Perhaps, Banach did not intended to enhance the idea that “real value came from within and was greater than any value that could come from external things since it couldn’t be taken away” and at the same time being contradictive with his idea of being an existentialist. I personally take his lecture as one of the advices to live. To be honest, he did bring up many perspective of life that I never consider before. His ideas did not always seem relevant, but at certain points in my life, I find it helpful and sophisticated. All I need to do is break down his lecture and disconnect his arguments into a whole. Such as the example that he gives in his lecture, “One might imagine that if one could face one’s death, face the impossibility of getting any value from external accomplishments, and still find value within oneself, the value will be invulnerable. It could never be taken away. What else could they do to you?” I find his example very helpful. I imagine myself getting old and face death at some point in my life; this is a great way to cope with the fear of death.
When I was little, a piece of candy, or just one simple doll would gratify me. I felt love and all I asked for were just always enough. I would not complain for more and I would not question the word "happiness". All I know is when I smile, that is the bliss of my life. Therefore, I do not over think this word or the definition of it. Somehow when I grew up, both I and the others around me have redefined it for me.
Reading Banach's lecture, he triggers my realization. But simultaneously, he has redefined “human happiness” that makes me feel like all my old memories of happiness have never existed. This sounds very disappointed. However, although his lecture makes so much sense in certain ways, I do not believe "there are no external values that we can live up to". If that is true, why do I still exist?
Who is he to decide whether “rolling a ball up a hill” could not be happy “eternally”? Everybody has their own values in life and things to reach for. Perhaps pursuing happiness “from within is infinitely better than the value one vainly attempts to get from outside”, but it doesn’t mean receiving happiness externally is not valuable. I even doubt if Banach is getting to the extreme and often times, struggles for happiness. If every human being on this earth has to get happiness as the way Banach has described, then we will never be free. I paused for awhile, and asked myself. Does he mean in order to be free; we have to give up happiness?
I certainly do not believe Banach is making any sense in his lecture since every argument that he talked about became a contradiction. Such as when he stated “no external viewpoint from which our life can be viewed to be valuable”, and “loss of our external sources of values are the necessary price of a greater value and happiness that comes from within ourselves” If that is what he meant, aren’t the “important lesson” from external is more valuable than the values within? Without making the mistakes and realized the disappointment, we will never know the external values are more valuable. To me, external values are necessary and often more valuable because they are the origins that lead me to the next-internal values.
Nevertheless, Banach’s lecture is often frustrated. Before he mentioned “one loses the promise of external value, but they find a more real happiness”, I never thought about there are real and fake happiness. Because to me, only “true happiness” are consider happiness. Why would people consider something that is not real “happiness”? Also, if people did not want to be the one that he suggested in his lecture, but trying to achieve happiness. That person is not being “authentic”. I do believe people find their own way to receive happiness, and what happiness really is are based on their own definition. This connects to part I of his lecture that we cannot feel how others’ feel and we are all “alone” in our own world. If that is the case, how is he able to know whether what we feel is not true happiness?
After reading his lecture, I learned that he is a hypocrite.
Perhaps, Banach did not intended to enhance the idea that “real value came from within and was greater than any value that could come from external things since it couldn’t be taken away” and at the same time being contradictive with his idea of being an existentialist. I personally take his lecture as one of the advices to live. To be honest, he did bring up many perspective of life that I never consider before. His ideas did not always seem relevant, but at certain points in my life, I find it helpful and sophisticated. All I need to do is break down his lecture and disconnect his arguments into a whole. Such as the example that he gives in his lecture, “One might imagine that if one could face one’s death, face the impossibility of getting any value from external accomplishments, and still find value within oneself, the value will be invulnerable. It could never be taken away. What else could they do to you?” I find his example very helpful. I imagine myself getting old and face death at some point in my life; this is a great way to cope with the fear of death.
He made me doubt about the word "happiness" once again...
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