Happiness and Desire Satisfaction

Question 1

Desire Theory

Answer 1

Happiness means the satisfaction of your Desires

Question 2

Argument 1 for Desire Theory

Answer 2

There are cases un which we desire things that we won’t experience
* In these cases, our having a Good Life depends not on Good Experiences but rather on the Satisfaction of our Desires

Question 3

Argument 2: The Motivation Argument

Answer 3

(1) If someone has no motivation in herself for reaching a certain good, it doesn’t mean anything to say thatit is a good for her
(2) there is nothing that is motivating us (« setting us in motion ») except what we desire or what we want.
(C) Therefore, the intrinsic goods for a person’s happiness are defined by what she desires or wants

Question 4

Distinctions for Desire Theory (2)

Answer 4

1. What you desire and what you want (will)
   example: the drug addict
   desires = passive, you experience them
   wills = active, you voluntarily will something
2. What you seem to want (superficial will) and what you really want (dep will)

Question 5

Objections (DT)

Answer 5

1. Disappointment
2. Suicidal person
3. Lobotomized

Question 6

General Objection and response of DT

Answer 6

Objection:
There are cases in which satisfying our desires wll not lead to a Happy Life

Response:
in all these cases, we can say that the lack of happiness is due to the lack of satisfaction of some deeper natural desire
* Solution = Happiness is the satisfaction of deep and natural wills (not of superficial or momentary desires).

Question 7

Two desire theories

Answer 7

1. simple desire theory
   good life = satisfy all of our desires
2. natural and deep will theory 🌻
   gets back to natural law theory: if we all have, in our common nature, the same deep and natural desires
   (love, flourish, live)

Question 8

Advantages of the natural and deep will theory 🌻

Answer 8

1. Morality defined by what people want
   (internal longing, not imposed from outside)
2. Morality contains objective universal truths