PHIL 3160 – Philosophy of Happiness

What is it, how can we best pursue it, why should we? Supporting the study of these and related questions at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond. "Examining the concept of human happiness and its application in everyday living as discussed since antiquity by philosophers, psychologists, writers, spiritual leaders, and contributors to pop culture."

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Questions Nov 21

Burkeman 10-13 -p.213 -- Presentations CHLOE, TAYLOR, SNEH. If you're not yet an author on this site, please sign up in class today.

  1. What does research show about impatient driving? Does this also apply to those of us who are impatient with drivers who go too recklessly and fast? Do you experience frustration (or rage) behind the wheel? How do you manage it? 162
  2. Have you experienced, or worried about falling prey to, a vicious addictive spiral? 168 Do you have any advice for those who have or who do? (Ask me about This Naked Mind...)
  3. What was Jennifer Roberts' initial art history assignment? 174 Would you do it? Have you ever done anything comparable? What did that teach you?
  4. What's Peck's insight? Is there anything in your life to which it might apply? 179
  5. What does it mean to "stay on the bus," creatively and otherwise? 183 
  6. What is "Super Mario's" misunderstanding about the value of time? What sort of good is it, in Burkeman's view? 186-7
  7. Have you been, or are you tempted to become, a digital nomad? What are you risking, if you do? 189
  8. What's a fika? Do you ever take one, or need one? 191-2
  9. "That's no holiday, if you have to celebrate it by yourself." 193 Agree? (And do you have Thanksgiving plans this year?) 
  10. Do you regularly engage in any form of collective ritual or coordinated action? Have you experienced "the sacred place where the boundaries of the self grow fuzzy"? 196
  11. Was Hannah Arendt right, and prophetic? 200
  12. Did the pandemic offer a silver lining of "bittersweet gratitude" or a "possibility shock" for you, in any respect? 205-7  How can we lock in such lessons before reverting back to the old normal? 
  13. Do you think the cosmos itself has a significance? If so, don't we share in that? Does it matter, for this, that our lives transpire in the relative blink of an eye? 208-9
  14. Are you okay with the likelihood that you probably won't be another Mozart or Einstein? 212 (After all, Mozart and Einstein weren't an earlier you.)
==
How to add links, embed videos etc. in final report posts (post early drafts at will, final draft due Dec.10)--

To insert links:
1. Highlight a word or phrase in your text
2. Click on the link icon
3. Paste the URL address of the site or passage you want to link to
==
Videos: in Blogger, after clicking on "New Post"--
1. Copy the URL of the video you want to share.
2. Click on "More options" on the far right of the toolbar above, then Insert Video icon (3d from left)
3. Select YouTube
4. Select Search 5. Paste the URL & Select it
==
To insert graphics, either just copy-&-paste... OR, click on the "insert image" icon (to the right of the link icon, to the left of the "insert video" icon) and select the appropriate option
==
To embed Google Books pages:
1. Find the book you want to embed.
2. Select Preview
3. Select (click on) the page you want to embed.
4. Click More Actions (the three vertical dots in the upper right)
5. Select Embed (unless you just want to link the page)
6. Copy the code
7. In edit mode on blogger, select the pen icon in the upper left and click on HTML view
8. Paste the code
==
Familiarize yourself with the edit icons in the drop-down menu (link, insert image, insert video, etc.) Always make sure, after you Publish, that the formatting is correct on the blogsite. If not, click More options (the three horizontal dots in the upper right) and then Clear Formatting on the far right (the T with a diagonal slash).

3 comments:

  1. Do you think the cosmos itself has a significance? If so, don't we share in that? Does it matter, for this, that our lives transpire in the relative blink of an eye?

    Universe has existed for almost 14 billion years. And how many years if not weeks do you get? 4000? Ridiculous, isn’t it. But factual. Are we important? No. How do you find purpose then? A purpose for me is being a butterfly. Butterflies live for two to four weeks. A fraction of what we live. But when we see a butterfly flying its way through its existence it makes us smile, brings positive energy. In a little life that we live, we can be a butterfly in this vast universe making everyone happy, being happy, being the butterfly in the room. Yes, life is troublesome. But we don’t wanna be an ugly moth spreading our wickedness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In other words, it's the quality of our experience of life, not the quantity, that weighs most significantly on the happiness scale. We can make our lives beautiful and good, and in that way transcend the brevity of life.

    And as we've been emphasizing in the course, the best--the most happy-inducing-- way to go about that form of transcendence is in the company of our peers. We all ought to try and be social butterflies, as it were.

    At my wedding back in '93 we shared this with our guests:
    “The truest vision of life I know is that bird in the Venerable Bede that flutters from the dark into a lighted hall, and after a while flutters out again into the dark. But...it is something--it can be everything--to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and boasting and reciting and fighting go on below; a fellow bird whom you can look after and find bugs and seeds for; one who will patch your bruises and straighten your ruffled feathers and mourn over your hurts when you accidentally fly into something you can't handle. (--from The Spectator Bird)”
    ― Wallace Stegner

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re: the pbd, check this out: https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/02/14/happy-birthday-pale-blue-dot/

      Delete

You don’t need a pill: Neo

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependen...