In Epicurus’s theory, pleasure is the most
important point. The greatest achievement one person can achieve is seeking for
pleasure and enjoying it. The relationship ship between money and happiness is
like a function graph. But it’s not always proportion positively. It’s hard for
me to image how people will get happiness without money that can satisfy their
daily need. At the same time, I don’t
think those super rich people are living in pleasure. Money isn’t the only way
for people to happiness, but it’s the uppermost one. There’s a joke, “Money is
not everything, but everything needs money.”
Let’s image the life of people who don’t
have that much money and need to worry about if they will have money for the
next meal, a community that needs to worry about themselves’ security and kids
with dystrophia, this life is definitely an ideal life for most people.
Then we can image those millionaires’ life.
They also need to worry about their security because they are rich. Their
family may be kidnapped to extort money from those millionaires. Their privacy
can also be violated while some media draw public’s attention to their life.
From my perspective after learning
Epicurus’ theory, I believe that the relationship between money and pleasure
depends on different people. Some one, who don’t even satisfy daily need in our
opinion, probably live more happily because of their religion. So I think it really depends how money and happiness relates to each other.
I like how you shed light on both sides of the story. I agree that in today's society you do need money to do certain luxurious things that would make most people happy. But it is important to remember that one should get happiness out of the little things in life too, not just the things that money can buy. Is there a happy medium? If we ran completely on the barter system, would that eventually lead to a high, middle, and low class too?
ReplyDeleteI like how you give both example from people with money and people in poverty, it really shows the two side of having money. And I agree with you that rich people have many benefit but someone them do live under the pressure of having too much money. However have you thought about why does money makes people happy?
ReplyDeletei really like your "joke", “Money is not everything, but everything needs money.” And i agree with your idea that different types people will have different opinions. I think money just a way makes people happy and people want to find a way let them happy.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you expressed both sides of people who don't have much money compared to those who do. I also like in the last line how you didn't pick money or happiness, and thought about how they relate rather than differ. I totally agree that Epicurus’ theory depends on different people.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points. After contemplating Epicurus's philosophy do you think your relationship between money and happiness has changed at all?
ReplyDelete