Today's soundtrack is Epica: The Holographic Principle.Â
This afternoon, I'm reading the introduction of Alain Stephen's This Book Will Make You Think: Philosophical Quotes and What They Mean, titled "Introduction: What Is Philosophy?" I will then read the introduction to the first section of the book, "On Happiness."Â
Every person holds a philosophy (or several), whether or not he realizes it. Stephen says that "everything we think and feel is intrinsically linked to some form of philosophy" (p. 12); even choosing to believe in nothing is still choosing a belief system. The study of philosophy is an investigation; philosophy's major themes are like pieces in a chess game, and our job is "recognizing and analyzing the patterns, untangling the false moves that don't conform to the rules and deciding which step may be the best to make next" (p. 13).Â
Happiness
The question of happiness - what it is and what its ethical implications are - has been a part of philosophy "since the classical age of Plato and Aristotle" (p. 17). If the search for happiness is the search for that which benefits us, what if that which benefits us infringes on the happiness of another? Is it even possible to be happy if others are unhappy? Should we still search for happiness?Â
Kant believed that basing our morality on our happiness was not feasible; Ghandi believed that "[h]appiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony" (p. 17).Â