Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Fundamentals of Ethics, Chapter 2

Choose one of the discussion questions from chapter 2 and respond to it in a short paragraph. Pay attention to spelling, punctuation, etc.

18 comments:

  1. Question three asks “What is autonomy? Can hedonism account for the value of autonomy?"
    Autonomy is the right and ability to make our own choices. When we think about making our own choices, it doesn’t always lead to happiness. When we think about the book Brave New World, the higher power limited the people's autonomy. The people were required to take soma, which limited their ability to make their own decisions. This would not be fair. Also think about it this way. If we go to the doctor's office, and expect a bad report, we want to be lied to that we will be alright. However, when that is not the case, and the doctor tells the truth, we are not happy at the bad news. So, neither the lie nor the truth can give happiness. The people in brave new world, when they are deprived of their autonomy, there is an absence of great value, which happens to make a life a better life.

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  2. Autonomy is the right to make your own decisions. Making choices are not always easy and fun. Some choices could be hard like, pull the plug on a family member that is in pain. You will not get happiness from every choice, but you can try to pick the one that you feel is right. If you give up autonomy then you will not be able to pick anything that might give you happiness. If you have autonomy than you can decide for yourself what happiness really is. Without that then you would not now what is fun and happy, it would all just be plain.

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  4. Question #3
    The power to guide our life through our own free choices, even if it sometimes cost us our happiness. Yes because if you give your cat freedom to go outside and it gets hit by a car then you cost your happiness and the cat its happiness.

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  5. Question 2

    I would not go into the experience machine if given the chance. The idea of the machine poses a challenge to hedonism because even though there is nothing but happiness in the experience machine, you can't pursue said happiness because it's the only thing that exists. Also, with so much happiness and wonderful feelings happening all the time a person would start to become tired of this joy, eventually requiring more and more until no amount of happiness and joy could actually make them feel happy.

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  6. The paradox of hedonism is the fact that those who try too hard to make themselves happy do not usually succeed. They are too focused on finding something that makes them happy to look around and look at their life as it is. This gives us reason to reject hedonism because if you are trying so hard to be happy, it's almost like you have blinders on and cannot see anything else. You're so focused on the big picture of being happy that you don't look at the details and ignore the little things in life that would make you happy.

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  7. Paradox Of Hedonism
    If something always makes us better off, then it seems reasonable to try very hard to aquire it. With happiness this completly backfires. Those who try really hard to make themselves happier almost never succeed. this is the paradox of hedonism. if something is not physical beneficial but attributes to a brief happiness is it really okay? and how would you get around it? I think as any paradox this question makes one really need to ponder over hedonism.

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  8. 2. If I had the choice to be in the "experience machine" for the rest of my life I would not do it. I would not want to knowingly enter a false reality. Going into the "experience machine" would mean leaving my family, life, and everything I love behind. This is a problem for Hedonism because the machine does not leave you in control of your own happiness. The machine creates the happiness for you. Also the happiness is under a false reality; even though the machine makes a happy life for you, is it true happiness? So any happiness under a false pretense isn't true happiness at all.

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  9. I chose question number one: the paradox says that because it isnt rational to pursue happiness only, happiness isn't the only thing making our lifes better.
    well-- almost but if we single mindedly we pursue and it constantly avoides us on how happy are we now.

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  11. The argument for 'unhappiness as a symptom of harm' is in my opinion the most convincing. Hedonism is entirely too two-dimensional to account for unhappiness as anything but a direct concern in and of itself. Unhappiness is deeper than this analysis allows: it can happen not only in itself, but also as the result of some loss or harm.

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  12. Question 1; Autonomy is the power to guide our life through our own free choices even if it sometimes costs us our happiness. Hedonists believe that the only thing that is intrinsically valuable is happiness. Hedonists would only value things that made them happy, but if the had to make a difficult choice they would pick whats best for themselves. with autonomy sometimes the life decision the must make could affect them personally in a negative way. i think that hedonism is to much about personal gain for autonomy.

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  14. Question 1: The paradox of hedonism is the vain pursuit of pleasure only to find that pleasure and happiness are not the same thing. If you pursue pleasure you loose both happiness and after a time, pleasure as well. Whereas if you pursue happiness, you find happiness and pleasure is one its servants.

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  15. The paradox of hedonism is when a person tries their hardest to make themselves happier but they never succeed at doing so. I don't think that this paradox gives us a reason to reject the thoughts of hedonism. It just shows that we are human and life is going to be a struggle the get the things that make us happy. Even if we can't support why we can still believe in hedonistic views.
    For example people always ask Christians how they believe in God when they have no proof but the bible. Christians often have little to no response to that question, but they still have the right to believe in that view.

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  16. The paradox of hedonism is when someone tries to find happiness but never do because they find out that pleasure and happiness are not the same. I think that if you look for pleasure, you lose happiness. Then, after a while, you lose pleasure too. It has to go the other way around. If you look for happiness, you might find it, but you might also find pleasure in happiness.

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    Replies
    1. Autonomy is the capacity to determine for yourself the principles that you will live by. I can also refer to your ability to live according to your own life plan. This concept is really what the experience of being alive is all about. A life full of just happiness is not a normal life. Everyone goes through sadness, heartbreak, despair, or anger. Most people would agree that this is the only way to live because it differentiates the good times from the bad times and makes moments more memorable. If a life is full of happiness 24/7, moments are remembered as well because every moment is a happy one. This is a contradiction to hedonism, which is the only things worth while in life are ones that make you happy. When dealing with autonomy, every emotion is experienced. Autonomy would not be classified as a hedonistic view of life.

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  17. Paradox of Hedonism 1

    The paradox of Hedonism is where someone only focuses on making him or herself happy. They single-mindedly pursue happiness but in doing so they often do not find happiness but instead only sadness and despair. I think it is a strong reason to reject hedonism. I think it’s strong because of its simplicity. However is not necessarily enough to shoot down hedonism fully. The reason is because they do not say how we should go about achieving this happiness but instead only say that happiness is best thing.

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