What Is the Ultimate Purpose of Human Existence?
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What is the ultimate purpose of human existence?
As humans we have an idea of what our purpose here can be, but we are not totally sure if we truly know. Our happiness can be our ultimate purpose, but we may not know what happiness truly is. As Aristotle had said before, “Happiness depends on ourselves”. He believes that happiness is a central principle of human life. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, we can see that our society today is focused on the wrong aspect of happiness. We can see that people seek for things like pleasure, wealth, and a good status as happiness. In fact, all these have some value, but there are many other things that are worth the fight, to seek for our ultimate happiness. We can conclude that we are wrong in thinking that materialistic things are meant to bring happiness to our lives. That our ultimate purpose is happiness.
Happiness can be said to be found by treating others as ends and not as means. We are giving a notion of respect, for which we can say is the respect to humanity. Ultimately in order to treat someone as an end and not as a means, we need to be faithful and true to itself. In other words, we say that our happiness depends on our money, pleasures, and reputation because that is what gives us a smile. Yet, that is not what Aristotle believed to be happiness. Aristotle wants us to treat others as they truly are. To not let suppositions, determine how you should treat a person. As well, to not let the pretty objects attract you to what is dressed as happiness. All these examples exemplify that they’re goods as means to obtain happiness. While happiness is its end in itself.
We can say human existence depends on happiness, but humans still can’t figure what it truly is. Eudaimonia is the Greek translation of happiness and as other foreign translations, this one can be ambiguous. The biggest problem with our society is that they think happiness is a feeling or a way of expression. A way of “having fun” with others. However, for Aristotle happiness is a final goal that surround one’s life. It’s not like a sensation that you can get today and loose tomorrow. Happiness is a final value of your life to a lived up moment, that illustrates how well you lived up to that point as a human. For this reason, you cannot say that you are happy or that you are living a happy life, until it is completely over, because the life of a human is not yet being realized. For as to what Aristotle said, our ultimate purpose is to find that true happiness, and realize it when our lives had come to an end because you have reached that ultimate goal.
What is the relation between Utilitarianism and Happiness?
Utilitarianism is characterized by two components, Happiness and consequences. Utilitarianism happiness is the greatest happiness that every human strives for. There is no comparison that we can do with Utilitarianism and Happiness, just the fact that both unite to form one definition. Everything that is useful to happiness in a utilitarianism perspective, is good. This ideology of utilitarianism is based on the principle of utility, which is something that’s is beneficial. Utility is found on everything that benefits to happiness to a rational being, which is us.
Mill defines Utilitarianism as a moral theory that says actions are right if they are beneficial to happiness, and are wrong if they produce the reverse of happiness. He also defines happiness as a sense of pleasure and a lack of pain sensation. He says that happiness can diverge from quantity and quality, and that the pleasures that mean more to us should be weighted more heavily than those that don’t. He basically argues that utilitarianism coincides with natural emotions that come from one self’s nature. Therefore, if people were to embrace utilitarianism, they would incorporate the standards as morally essential. He also argues that happiness is the heart of morality, and that society always desire happiness. Mill concludes that justice is based on utility and that rights only exist because it brings happiness to humans.
The purpose in life for our society should be to live in happiness. To live a life with the greatest amount of pleasure and the least amount of pain. The greatest pleasure is the mental one, and is usually preferred over body pleasure. The quality of pleasure is ranked by the amount of people who experience it and