Does happiness have any intrinsic value?
October 30, 2008
Does happiness have any intrinsic value? I do not think that happiness has intrinsic value. Happiness is a state of well-being that is characterized by intense joy. How can you have intense joy by yourself and nothing external to stimulate this joy? I believe it is difficult to have happiness that isn’t generated from external sources. If nothing were to occur to you externally, why would you be happy? Something must occur in order to trigger to good feelings that will develop into happiness. A person cannot fall in love all by themselves; they need the love and warmth from another human being.
October 30, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I’m going to have to disagree with you. I believe that happiness does have some sort of intrinsic value. Even if nothing happens around you that can trigger happiness, you could still be happy. You could be happy to be alive for example. Knowing that death brings sadness, being alive must bring happiness. Personally I believe you could argue either way, that’s why I think you need to have a balance of the internal and external.
October 30, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I agree that happiness does not have any intrinsic value. You could be happy that your alive but then that is the reason your happy. You are not just happy for no reason there has to be a reasoning behind that happiness.