The Nature and Value of Happiness by Christine Vitrano

Author:Christine Vitrano [Vitrano, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813347288
Publisher: Westview Press

The Simple Satisfaction View: Second Formulation

In response to the objection raised above, theorists have included additional conditions besides desire satisfaction that must also be met if one is to be deemed happy. For instance, Wayne Davis offers a theory of happiness that involves belief, desire, and thinking. According to Davis, “To be happy is to be thinking, with respect to a bunch of things, that they are turning out as you want them to turn out.”3 To illustrate Davis’s view, let us suppose at this moment I want to have a successful marriage and a secure career, and I do not care about anything else. According to Davis, I will be happy at this moment to the extent that I believe I have a successful marriage and a secure career, and the more strongly I want (and believe) these to be the case, the happier I will be. Davis defines happiness during a period of time as the average level of momentary happiness the person enjoyed during that time. So your happiness during the first five years of your marriage, for example, will be the average of whatever momentary happiness you experienced during those five years.

Davis also distinguishes between objective and subjective satisfaction of desires. According to Davis, my desires are objectively satisfied when I actually obtain whatever it is that I desire, even if I do not know that my desire has been satisfied. Subjective satisfaction will occur whenever I believe that my desires have been satisfied, even if I am mistaken. Davis argues that “happiness depends on the subjective satisfaction of desires, and at best only indirectly on their objective satisfaction.”4 He offers the example of someone who reads in the paper that his lottery ticket has won. Davis argues that this person will be ecstatic as long as he believes he is a lottery winner, even if what the newspaper printed was an error. Davis’s view clearly improves on the previous version of the simple satisfaction view, for he makes happiness a function of a person’s perception that she is getting what she wants. Because Davis factors in the extent to which she believes that she is getting what she wants, his view easily avoids the objection raised in the previous section.

Steven Luper presents a similar account, for he believes happiness has two components for ordinary people: the satisfaction of desires and the “appreciation of that satisfaction.” Luper’s account also avoids the objection raised in the previous section, for he requires not only that your desires are fulfilled, but that you consciously recognize and appreciate their fulfillment. As Luper explains, “Satisfying our desires is important, but so is the pleasant apprehension and appreciation of that satisfaction.”5

Returning to the example involving Joe, the writer, since he does not know that his desire has been satisfied, he cannot appreciate that satisfaction or believe that it has occurred. So Joe fails to meet one of the requirements of happiness stipulated by Davis and Luper. Therefore, both accounts will issue the correct judgment on Joe’s case, deeming him unhappy.

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