Both Sigmund Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontent, and Adam Curtis, in "The Century of Self: The Happiness Machine" examine happiness. Both have a slightly different view on it. Freud believes that while people can be happy for short amounts of time, due to civilization, it is impossible for them to be completely happy. Curtis, on the other hand, says that civilization, specifically those that run it, work constantly to make people happy, so that they remain docile.
In Chapter 2 of his book, Freud discusses at length, what happiness is and the different paths humans take to find it. He defines happiness as "the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree." (Freud 43) Due to this definition he says that happiness, by its nature is "only possible as an episodic phenomenon." (43) For this reason, it is impossible for humans to be constantly happy, and that, when or if happiness is achieved with some degree of consistency, then it looses its pleasure and simply becomes "a feeling of mild contentment." (43) Later on in his book Freud discusses the fact that it is civilization that prevents us from being happy and that "we should be happier if we gave it up and returned to primitive conditions."(58) This is because civilization prevents us from fulfilling our primal and basic needs when we have them, and since that is the cause of happiness we can not be fully happy in civilization.
In his film, Curtis discusses how civilization and those with the power in it, work to keep people happy through consumerism. This 'happiness' may not be true happiness, or happiness as Freud defines it, however the people who feel it seem to believe that it is true happiness. This is beneficial to those in charge of civilization as it keeps people docile. If they believe that they are happy, why do things need to change? This creates a stability that lets those who have the power, maintain power.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. United States of America: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 2010. Print.
Monday, 24 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Martyr or Not?
Is Socrates a man who is willing to die for his personal and philosophical beliefs or is he "a person who displays or exaggerates their discomfort or distress in order to obtain sympathy or admiration." Is he seeking to be a martyr-figure? I don't think he is seeking to be a martyr, instead I believe that he is simply a man willing to die for what he believes in. In the end he can be seen as a martyr as he does die rather than give up his beliefs, but I don't think that his goal was to be admired as a martyr, rather, he just would not compromise his beliefs and if that lead to his death, while so it goes. While Socrates does gain sympathy and admiration, throughout the Apology and later in the Crito you can see that rather than focusing on or exaggerating his own distress or discomfort, Socrates focuses on doing what he believes to be the right thing.
In the Apology, Socrates spends a lot of time discussing the validity of the charges of impiety and corruption of youth, that have been laid against him but he urges the jury to listen to him so that they can learn the truth, something he values greatly. He doesn't display any distress during the trial and even states that "Perhaps Meletus and others think [that death, exile or a deprivation of civil rights are] great evils. But I do not think so."[1] Instead of showing a fear of death, or making out his decision to die for his beliefs to be a great sacrifice he instead tells those that voted to have him acquitted that he believes that death is not a bad thing but instead highly likely to be something good. If he has done anything, he has under exaggerated, rather than exaggerated, the severity and discomfort of death. If he where trying to be a martyr he would not have downplayed death or made it seem like something not to fear.
Rather than displaying anxieties and distress, Socrates is calm and peacefully accepting of his death, as Crito, in Crito, marvels over while talking to Socrates in prison, "how easily and calmly you bear the calamity that has come to you."[2] Rather it is Socrates's friends who feel distressed.
For these reasons I feel that Socrates is not the martyr that the definition is given for in the question. Instead he is just a man with strong convictions, who is unwilling to compromise on them and would rather die, especially since death is not something bad to him. This personal conviction does earn him the admiration of his friends and others in the city of Athens however this is not the end he seeks, it is not his main goal. Instead his main goal is to do right by his city, and to do right by the gods, seeking to be the best person he can be.
[2] Plato, 51.
In the Apology, Socrates spends a lot of time discussing the validity of the charges of impiety and corruption of youth, that have been laid against him but he urges the jury to listen to him so that they can learn the truth, something he values greatly. He doesn't display any distress during the trial and even states that "Perhaps Meletus and others think [that death, exile or a deprivation of civil rights are] great evils. But I do not think so."[1] Instead of showing a fear of death, or making out his decision to die for his beliefs to be a great sacrifice he instead tells those that voted to have him acquitted that he believes that death is not a bad thing but instead highly likely to be something good. If he has done anything, he has under exaggerated, rather than exaggerated, the severity and discomfort of death. If he where trying to be a martyr he would not have downplayed death or made it seem like something not to fear.
Rather than displaying anxieties and distress, Socrates is calm and peacefully accepting of his death, as Crito, in Crito, marvels over while talking to Socrates in prison, "how easily and calmly you bear the calamity that has come to you."[2] Rather it is Socrates's friends who feel distressed.
For these reasons I feel that Socrates is not the martyr that the definition is given for in the question. Instead he is just a man with strong convictions, who is unwilling to compromise on them and would rather die, especially since death is not something bad to him. This personal conviction does earn him the admiration of his friends and others in the city of Athens however this is not the end he seeks, it is not his main goal. Instead his main goal is to do right by his city, and to do right by the gods, seeking to be the best person he can be.
[1] Plato, Euthyphro, Apology Crito, trans. F.J. Church (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1948), 37.
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