Dating - Philosophy for Everyone by Shenk Joshua Wolf Allhoff Fritz Miller Kristie Clark Marlene & Marlene Clark

Author:Shenk, Joshua Wolf, Allhoff, Fritz, Miller, Kristie, Clark, Marlene & Marlene Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2011-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

Happy Dating

In order to understand virtue theory (so that we may finally condemn our friend or family member’s best efforts), we’ll first have to introduce the notion of telos, or purpose, or function. It’s pretty simple really. The function of a knife is to cut. The function of an automobile is to get you to where you need to go in a timely and comfortable manner. A function is what something does, or how it is to be evaluated given the type of thing that it is. A knife is a cutting type of thing; an automobile is a transportation type of thing. These are what these things do; what they are.

What type of thing are you? It’s not just inanimate objects or artifacts that have a function. According to Aristotle, the function of man (e.g., we guys) is to obtain eudaimonia.1 For our purposes, we can translate Aristotle’s eudaimonia as simply “happiness” so long as we make the following qualification. There are at least two popular uses of the term “happiness” and only one of them will do as a translation of eudaimonia.

Imagine that you’re on a first date (a first date that may or may not have been the result of matchmaking). Your waiter – picking up on the subtle, awkward cues that tell him that he is waiting on a couple on their first date – decides to help mark the occasion by offering you a free hot-fudge sundae (to share; multiple-dessert markers are to be saved for anniversaries). Upon receiving your free dessert, you let your date know that you are now “happy” and in a sense, you are. We can call this type of happiness hot-fudge happiness. It’s a fleeting, moment-in-time sort of happiness. It’s the type of happiness that will vanish as quickly as it arrived if you lean in for a goodnight kiss and are met with nothing more than a disapproving glare. You might say that hot-fudge happiness isn’t really happiness; it is, well, “happiness.”

Contrast hot-fudge happiness with this other sort. Bill and Fran had their first date nearly six decades ago and began their marriage not long after. Sitting on their porch, moments from their simultaneous passing after long, fulfilling lives, Bill turns to Fran and says, “Franny, I sure am happy.” The type of happiness that Bill has expressed to his wife Fran is closer to the notion of Aristotle’s eudaimonia. It’s a flourishing life sort of happiness. It’s the happiness that only accompanies a well-lived life. Hot-fudge happiness is okay in its own right, but what we really care about in life is eudaimonia, truly living well.

The main difference between eudaimonia and hot-fudge happiness is that eudaimonia isn’t a feeling. In contrast to feeling well, eudaimonia is more comparable to something like health. Health is a complex set of features that may or unfortunately may not be true of your body. Eudaimonia is a complex set of features that may or may not be true of your life. Just

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