|
Home::Humanities
The Capacity for Happiness and Respectability
Author : Laurent Grenier
Humans are liable to experience a variety of afflictions, but they are commonly endowed with a capacity for happiness and respectability. There is no guarantee, however, that they will exercise this capacity at all times and to the maximum, whatever happens. Depression and shame remain a possibility, which increases with the severity of their afflictions and the difficulty of living up to the values that are necessary for their happiness and respectability: courage, efficiency, wisdom, and nobility.
Living up to these values is never easy, even under extremely favorable circumstances. It requires an effort of will. To make or not to make this effort is the question, central to the human existence. This question is difficult in proportion to the weight of suffering that bears on humans, while their dignity hangs in the balance. The more burdensome this weight, the more tempting it is for them to take the easy way out. The fear of losing their dignity, however, is a strong deterrent. There is no greater loss than that of dignity, save the loss of life itself. Yet, the easy way out is a very powerful temptation in extremely unfavorable circumstances. Giving up instead of living up to the values mentioned above is then deplorable but understandable. Excruciating circumstances are extenuating ones.
Amazingly enough, despite the burden of suffering that is oppressive to many, the incidence of moral collapse in the form of errant ways like carelessness, vagrancy, and crime, often accompanied by alcohol or drug abuse to fuddle the conscience is small in comparison with the incidence of worthy behavior. Furthermore, a moral collapse is remediable, except when the person concerned shows an inveterate or congenital weakness, or a mental illness that is beyond cure. On the whole, dignity can be lost and regained.
As for those who resist quitting the struggle for worthiness, they rarely do their best. In many instances their spirit is tainted with some degree of indulgence in laziness, cowardliness, ineffectiveness, foolishness, selfishness, and meanness. It has the grayness of dawn. Even those who shine like a late morning sun have a shadow of imperfection at their heels. In short, humanity has yet to fulfill its potential. While there is much courage, efficiency, wisdom, and nobility in the world, much happiness and respectability, there could be a whole lot more. The key to this rise is an effort of will.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Laurent Greniers career as a writer and philosopher spans over twenty years. During this time he has broadened and deepened his worldview, through much reflection and study, and in the end has crafted A REASON FOR LIVING, his best work to date.
Official web site: laurentgrenier.com/ARFL.html
Spam emails More free articles Related articles
|
More related feeds |
The Capacity for Happiness and Respectability
Humans are liable to experience a variety of afflictions, but they are commonly endowed with a capacity for happiness and respectability. There is no guarantee, however, that they will exercise this capacity at all times and to the ...FeedAgg.com | Feed | Humanities
Humans are liable to experience a variety of afflictions, but they are commonly endowed with a capacity for happiness and respectability. There is no. Date Published: n/a. Happiness. Having said this, even this sort of happiness is a ... Accounts Receivable Financing- the Fine Art of Happiness
Accounts receivable financing may be the enabling tool for more capacity, more flexibility, more fluidity, more efficiency, and more sales if you have to give credit terms to your customers and your internal cash flow, or bank financing ... utilitarianism: moral agents and their capacity for change
mill believes that in addition to measuring the amount at which the moral agent increased overall happiness, we also need to consider the moral agent’s capacity for change, the capacity or the degree to which they can benefit others. ... Redeeming the American Mind
He laments the coarseness of rock music and the evils that it accompanies and acclaims not because they may offend a holy God, but because they seem to inhibit students’ (and thus our future leaders’) capacity for serious thought. ... the karma of happiness
one measure of seligman’s success in bucking this undercurrent is that there is now a positive psychology network of professors and researchers devoted to the study of happiness around the world. with newfound scientific respectability, ... 美国历届总统演讲及画像－－James Madison
Already have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging flashes of heroic ... [gita-talk] Re: Guidance Needed for Retirement and Sanyaas
your capacity to appreciate such brutal attack. Hats Off to you. May Lord Krishna be always with you. Indeed you have a heart made of Gold. This world is sustained on the strength of people like you. Namaste Jee Jee Jee Shashikala ... Bertrand Russell - In Praise of Idleness
I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work. ... We had put all our efforts to produce some respectable reading ...
Philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand said the only genuine purpose for a life is the pursuit of happiness, and by that she meant our own. She reasoned that we?re incapable of making anyone else happy. They must do that for themselves. ...
| |
