Freud's Civilization and its Discontent topic 1

In life, is it possible to be happy and thoroughly enjoy living through our mistakes and successes, I have been wondering about this in the recent past. Many would simply agree that life is only lived for people to be happy. I would have agreed with this statement but since I have read Freud’s novel my views on life have been changed and have possibly confused my point of view.

Happiness can simply be defined as good fortuned or simply the state of being happy or joyful. Unfortunately, the only problem with the fact, if it is true, that people only live to strive for happiness and to remain so, many are very desperate to be in this state of mind and may sacrifice other parts of their life to be happy. Most people, in order to achieve their happiness, must be able to feel what it is like to be unhappy, this may or may not help for them to reach what they desire most. So with people trying their best to achieve what they wish to accomplish in life, this leaves me to wonder is it really possible for people to attain full happiness.

According to Freud, happiness in life is mainly attained through the enjoyment of beauty, which undoubtedly becomes a source of pleasure. Many believe that it has become more difficult for people to compare the happiness of people from an earlier era because it was essentially a biased emotion. In Freud’s view, civilization on the whole takes a massive toll on the happiness of an individual.

So can people really achieve to be completely happy in life? Many people never really think about the future, it is assumed that happiness is something we all strive for and unhappiness is never nearby. However, the sad fact is both happiness and unhappiness are equally real and reachable. Unfortunately, unhappiness does not seem to require a lot of effort to achieve whereas happiness seems to be miles away from where we are. Although unhappiness is close enough for us to touch, achieving happiness is ultimately what we strive to achieve in our lives but what happens when you achieve that happiness, can you ultimately stay happy for the rest of your life? Happiness, to many, is an important feeling to achieve in their lifetime because that feeling you get when you get something right after many attempts prior is one of the greatest feelings in the world. However, I wish that in my lifetime, I will be able to achieve what makes me happy and I hope that I will be able to hold onto that satisfying feeling and enjoy my life.

Socrates and Plato's Apology Topic 1

Are Socrates’ charges, corrupting the youth, creating new gods and not believing in the old gods legitimate? Is this a fair trial?

 Throughout Plato’s Euthyphro, the characters of Socrates and Euthyphro are discussing back and forth, what is good and right and what is simply not.

       These charges do not seem to be legitimate because they are based off of accusations and not a direct knowledge as to what actually occurred. But the “corrupting the youth charges” later becomes a more secured offence. Socrates’ charge about not believing in the gods is clarified when he says “I find it hard to accept [stories] people tell about the gods? I expect that I shall be found at fault because I doubt these stories” (pg 6, section 6). He goes on to explain his doubt about the god’s powers and attributes to society to Euthyphro. Socrates later becomes worried that the gods will fight over disagreements that occur between people and possibly between the gods themselves. An example of this is shown when Socrates says that “some of the gods [may] think one thing [is] just [and] the others another” (pg 8, section 8).

        But in order to answer this question, which has made me think about many of our day-to-day choices, Euthyphro’s idea of “righteousness and piety are that part of justice which has to do with the careful attention which ought to be paid to the gods” (pg 16, Section 14) is what has clarified my thoughts about this question.

        In our modern day society this trial would not be fair, legal or legitimate, but in the time this was written this trial could very well seem to be legitimate. But I am left to wonder if Socrates’ charges are fair and just. As far as I believe and know that in this time period this trial would be legitimate. But I enjoy that fact that in our modern times this trial would never be just and right because we are taught that people have different beliefs and we do not all have to think the same. Individuality in modern society is what is keeping people happy and thus not making us become different people, who make bad decisions and people lead us into situations we would not like to be in.

Citation: Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1948. 1-20. Print.