(April 5, 2012 at 11:26 am)ChadWooters Wrote:(April 5, 2012 at 11:03 am)Tempus Wrote: The system I've developed (and I'm not claiming to be entirely original) for what I ought and ought not do makes the following assumption: Happiness is worth pursuing.Then you are in agreement with Aristotle. That’s not a bad place to be.
I'm not familiar with Aristotle at all (I know who he is though of course). Did he acknowledge that the thing that 'ought' to be done (pursuing happiness) was an assumption? If so, I agree. If he thought it was some sort of self-evident truth I totally disagree. As far as I'm concerned there's no way to prove it's self-evident that happiness is good - it's an unsupported assumption. I don't particularly see this as problematic personally since all views are based on core assumptions which cannot be proven.
I chose a goal / motivation / assumption that coincided with what most people want as well as with my own desires. From what I know happiness of the individual is very often tightly linked to the happiness of society. Hence why I generally behave in a manner that doesn't hinder society. Every time I've gotten into fights / arguments / or screwed someone over I've felt bad afterwards. So I avoid it to increase my happiness.
