Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
I've always considered the first and primary goal of philosophy to be to answer the question, "How then shall we live?" Certainly there is more to philosophy than that, and many of the things addressed by one or another branch or sub-branch of philosophy have nothing to do whatsoever with that question; but of all the questions to which it seeks answers, I consider that to be the most important. Perhaps that's why I'm especially drawn to that branch of philosophy that deals primarily with Ethics. It's also why I find myself so disappointed with philosophers whose personal lives are anything but shining role models of virtuous lives.
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In that view, the subject that has most of my attention lately is the subject of desire.
Common wisdom, in this early 21st Century, is that the way to be happy is to pursue the object of your desire until you achieve it, after which you will live happily ever after. This is a theory that is especially dear to the Hollywood school of thought.
I believe it's an extremely dangerous illusion.
In Seneca's Letters to Lucilius, there is a passage that I can no longer find but that I quoted somewhere in this thread. It says, in effect, that it is not the absence of means, but a surplus of desire, which constitutes poverty.
This was a widespread belief among philosophers at the time of Seneca, a belief that is shared by epicureans, stoics and others (Lucilius is an epicurean, and Seneca is trying to lure him to stoicism, and in the first letters he starts by emphasizing the common ground between the two schools, and he often cites Epicurus).
I think it's very true, although, not being a Roman, I cannot share the idea that if I just stare at my desires sternly for long enough I will conquer them and be happy. Or rather, I don't have the guts to try it for the rest of my life. It might work, but it would be a rather painful journey. My personal approach would be closer to Zen philosophy (what I know of it), and to practices such as meditation.
Someone who taught me a lot about desire is (again) René Girard, in his book "Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World". And he also pointed me in the direction of Marcel Proust, who probably knew more than anyone about desire, its illusions and disillusions.