Seminar Description
Philosophy 381—Happiness and Meaning
Michael Taber

St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA

Ambrose Bierce defines life as “Life, n. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay.”   Given Bierce’s pessimistic ways, we can be confident that he means that this is all there is to life.  Our job in this seminar is to examine whether Bierce’s suggestion is in fact complete.  If your life amounts to nothing more than simply the depression of the “pause” button for the decay of your body, then why toil, why strive, why aspire?

In fact, why even continue to preserve the body from decay?  That is, why even continue to live?  Because we’re already doing it, so why change course?  Because everyone else is doing it?  Because as paltry, trifling, insignificant, miserable, and dismal as life is, death might be even worse?

If Dorothy Parker is correct in saying, “It’s not true that life is one damned thing after another.  It’s the same damned thing over and over!”, then it would not be surprising to learn that she is the author of the following lines in her poem “Résumé”:

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

If Bierce and Parker are right, and life’s pointlessness is matched only by the unpleasantness of trying out the alternative, this would not be heartening news.  By reading this far, you have already signed away the option of blissful ignorance.  Is there reason to hold out hope, or shall we just throw in the cosmic towel? 

Not many people (except a few philosophers!) would deny that living a happy or a meaningful life is desirable, although they might well disagree with each other about what it takes to make a life happy or meaningful. Some hold that one merely needs to be fully engaged in life for it to be choiceworthy. Others object that a life of game shows and pork rinds (even one enthusiastically of game shows and pork rinds) is importantly bereft of value, and that the more fully engaged in such a life, the more pathetic one’s life would be. 

 

Others hold that in order for a life to be happy or to have meaning it must have some purpose greater than itself, whether that purpose is saving souls, saving the environment, or saving postage stamps to be donated to a museum.

 

Still others hold that meaningfulness is meaningless, and talk of it should be jettisoned in favor of what makes us happy.  But then happiness comes with its own questions, many of which are similar to those for meaningfulness. 

 

Is happiness a matter of pleasant feelings, or of achieving a life well lived?  (Ans: there are philosophers on both sides of this one.)  How does one judge what will make one happy?  (Ans: not very well, psychologists find.)  To what extent is poverty detrimental to (or even productive of) happiness, and what are the implications for global economic development?  (Ans: sticky question, economists find.)

 

Through readings both classic (e.g., Plato, Tolstoy, Camus) and contemporary (Lorraine Besser, Thomas Nagel, Susan Wolf), each seminar participant will craft and share a coherent stand on happiness and meaning, thereby standing with Bierce and Parker or jumping (joyfully?) away.

 

I aim to help you:

·       come to a reflective position on happiness: whether it is a subjective or objective state; whether it requires its possessor to be morally good; whether it is no more than feeling pleasure;

·       to be able to address in a philosophically informed way social science research findings about happiness;

·       to develop a manifesto about your views on meaningfulness, so that when asked at a future cocktail party what the meaning of life is, you are not left speechless.

 

Student learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will demonstrate the ability to:

1.     analyze how thinkers were responding to other thinkers about happiness and meaning;

2.     apply views of thinkers on happiness and meaning to issues of continuing relevance;

3.     construct effective written communication of ideas happiness or meaning;

4.     construct effective oral communication of ideas about happiness or meaning;

5.     construct a critique of the reasoning used for various arguments in discussions of happiness or meaning;

6.     ground in primary or secondary sources their claims about thinkers on happiness or meaning.

 

Land acknowledgment pledge:

We acknowledge that the land on which we are learning, working, and gathering today is the ancestral home of the Yacocomico and Piscataway Peoples. We also acknowledge that St. Mary’s City was partly built and sustained by enslaved people of African descent. Through this acknowledgment, we recognize these communities and all those who have been displaced and enslaved through colonization.

 

The goal of the land acknowledgment pledge is not only to respect and honor the contributions of Indigenous Peoples and enslaved people of African descent, but to support and learn from all diverse communities in order to build a more sustainable future.

Send me mail:  mstaber at smcm dot edu

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