Senior Religion Happiness Unit Reflection 1
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September 7, 2021Driving back from Spokane recently, I stopped in Ritzville for gas. When I did so, a made sure to select a particular grade of unleaded over other grades and as opposed to diesel? Why? Because that is the fuel that is recommended by my cars manufacturer, with the understanding that other types of fuel may be either unhelpful or even harmful to my car’s engine.
In a broad sense, we might say that the right type of fuel, along with the right maintenance and proper driving habits makes my car “happy.” Of course, my car doesn’t feel any emotions, but we have often understood a correlation between a thing functioning according to its design and its happiness. In some cases, even if a thing is functioning rightly we might not say it is happy, if it isn’t reaching its full potential. For example, one might say that a Corvette or Ferrari was unhappy being driven around on city roads because it could never reach its full potential. A sports car is happy on a track, a jeep is happy mudding, and a Honda Odyssey is happy with a full load of kids going to a soccer game.
So, what makes us happy? In a culture that has no common understanding of what it means to be human, it is impossible to come up with an understanding of what it means to be happy. These first weeks of class have consisted of developing the framework for understanding what it means to be human and from there what it means to be truly happy. To guide us along this journey we have had such great thinkers as Aristotle, Fr. Robert Spitzer (the former president of Gonzaga), and Jennifer Frey PhD., who has done extensive work in the realm of human happiness based upon what is understood as virtue ethics.
Aristotle and Spitzer have taught us that we can best understand what a thing by the abilities or “powers” that it has and that these powers work to a particular “purpose.” Now, a thing can function well or poorly based on whether or not it has the stuff necessary to use these powers to fulfill its purpose: a car with no oil isn’t going to be fulfilled no matter how nice it is otherwise. Human beings similarly have powers such as knowing and loving, being known and being loved, experiencing, and striving for beauty, truth, goodness, and justice. These are things that help define our humanity. The degree to which we actualize these powers (ultimately in the life of God) will dictate our happiness. This is not an easy path to happiness and it is a path that will take to totality of our lives. However, it is the way in which we were designed, and the Driving back from Spokane recently, I stopped in Ritzville for gas. When I did so, a made sure to select a particular grade of unleaded over other grades and as opposed to diesel? Why? Because that is the fuel that is recommended by my cars manufacturer, with the understanding that other types of fuel may be either unhelpful or even harmful to my car’s engine.
In a broad sense, we might say that the right type of fuel, along with the right maintenance and proper driving habits makes my car “happy.” Of course, my car doesn’t feel any emotions, but we have often understood a correlation between a thing functioning according to its design and its happiness. In some cases, even if a thing is functioning rightly we might not say it is happy, if it isn’t reaching its full potential. For example, one might say that a Corvette or Ferrari was unhappy being driven around on city roads because it could never reach its full potential. A sports car is happy on a track, a jeep is happy mudding, and a Honda Odyssey is happy with a full load of kids going to a soccer game.
So, what makes us happy? In a culture that has no common understanding of what it means to be human, it is impossible to come up with an understanding of what it means to be happy. These first weeks of class have consisted of developing the framework for understanding what it means to be human and from there what it means to be truly happy. To guide us along this journey we have had such great thinkers as Aristotle, Fr. Robert Spitzer (the former president of Gonzaga), and Jennifer Frey PhD., who has done extensive work in the realm of human happiness based upon what is understood as virtue ethics.
Aristotle and Spitzer have taught us that we can best understand what a thing by the abilities or “powers” that it has and that these powers work to a particular “purpose.” Now, a thing can function well or poorly based on whether or not it has the stuff necessary to use these powers to fulfill its purpose: a car with no oil isn’t going to be fulfilled no matter how nice it is otherwise. Human beings similarly have powers such as knowing and loving, being known and being loved, experiencing, and striving for beauty, truth, goodness, and justice. These are things that help define our humanity. The degree to which we actualize these powers (ultimately in the life of God) will dictate our happiness. This is not an easy path to happiness and it is a path that will take to totality of our lives. However, it is the way in which we were designed, and the
