In Chapter 12 Socrates argues that a moral person is a happier person than an immoral one. Since a moral person is guided by reason, that person has a greater understanding of reality, which is the basis for true happiness. As Socrates states in the dialogue: " . . . [T]he more real something is, the more it can be a source of true satisfaction"(585d). Yet is Socrates correct? Is knowledge the key to happiness? Is it better to base one's happiness on things that are stable, long-lasting and not deceptive? Is pleasure based on false information ever a source of happiness? Or is ignorance bliss?
Based off of my short viewing of the Matrix I'd say ignorance is bliss as I have never seen the rest of the movie but the moment Neo is woken up he is confused and refuses to accept the truth. That he and the entirety of the human race is being used as batteries for the AI they created. I think ignorance is bliss because its just one less thing to worry about.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the more real something is the more satisfying or pleasurable it is if you do not know that it is not as real as other things; however, if you do know that it is deceptive then you could get more satisfaction or pleasure from seeking out the more true action.
ReplyDeleteI also think that that knowledge is not necessarily the key to happiness. Instead, I think it may be the idea of knowledge/a false sense of knowledge. When people do not have reason to think what they believe is false, then people can be happy. However, if it is revealed that what people believe is indeed false, then people will not be happy until they know the "truth."
ReplyDeleteI agree with Plato however, I think a better grammar can be used to refer to these concepts. Specifically, that of transcendence that which Simone De Beauvoir uses in her essay ‘Pyrrhus and Cineas’. Knowledge itself is not sufficient to grant happiness. Knowledge must be used as a stepping-stone to gain the tools to know what is desired beyond a perishable goal.
ReplyDeleteSimply knowing the world as well as possible will not make us happy because we must act. Even if we were to resign ourselves to studying day and night, we would want for things. Plato himself wants to create a perfect society of philosopher kings that he admits is fickle and will fall apart at some point. This does not stop him from striving for it and educating people about it. Why does he attempt such a goal if it is not going to be “long lasting”? Here we can insert Beauvoir’s analogy of the skier. To deal with the issue of unstable pleasure she retorts that,
“One says that the skier only climbs up in order to come down. Then one is admitting that he climbs, that he comes down, that his movements do not follow each other randomly but aim for the top of the hill or the bottom of the valley. One therefore grants the existence of synthetic signification towards which every element transcends itself.”
It is obvious that one gains pleasure from skiing however without understanding transcendence it seems like a futile endeavor. It seems as though we only wake up every morning to go back to sleep the next. We only prepare a delicious meal to finish it. This is the view of someone lacking knowledge. They think their actions are useless. When in reality the actions we take even if they are not long lasting are backed by an overarching and unchanging goal. A “true belief” as I think Plato would put it.
To connect it back to Plato. He wants to create a better society so that he can transcend the world he lives in. Make it better and he embraces the absurdity of that endeavor as he later describes the inevitable downfall of his society. If he did not have the knowledge he does, he would find pleasure in his society being created but sadness in it’s demise. Because he has knowledge and is capable of understanding it’s demise, he is able to be truly satisfies or happy with the society he creates even in it’s demise.
Ignorance is not bliss. Even in ignorance, we can experience the pleasure of skiing down a hill however without knowledge it will not be something we enjoy fully. We will always be thinking about how futile it seems. With knowledge, we are able to grasp its futility and love skiing fully. Plato is correct. We must be knowledgeable in order to be satisfied. Within the frame of stable things like knowledge, we must also allow for a trip up and down a mountain otherwise life is devoid of pleasure and there is no goal to work towards.
I feel like it makes sense to base your own happiness off of things that are real and cant be taken away, but in a way that may not exist. Even if something is real and brings happiness to your life it still can be taken away just like something that was never real to begin with. I also think that if the information you are given is what you believe to be the truth then it can be a source of happiness. Such as that false reality in the Matrix that was designed to basically give people a better world and life even if it wasn't real.
ReplyDeleteAlthough ignorance may allow one to be happy, I agree with Plato that there exists a truer, special plane of pleasure and happiness in knowledge. There is a deep sense of happiness in understanding or knowing the truth, while pleasure based on falsehood is far more shallow. Even if the truth is ugly, one feels more fulfilled to know the ugly truth than to be blinded to it. For example, children in the United States, including myself, are often taught at a young age about Christopher Columbus's great achievements in discovering the New World. However, I and many other children were not taught until much later about Columbus's brutal treatment of natives and his thirst for gold. I feel happy now that I have learned the truth rather than continued to believe a falsehood, although I obviously wish Columbus hadn't done many of the things he did. Often, when one learns the truth, one feels a bit guilty for not knowing the truth before, showing that humans have an intrinsic desire for the truth, and we would prefer to know it than to be under a false impression. The happiness we feel when we are under false impressions is surface-level, while the deep meaning that we feel when we know the truth makes us truly happy.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that knowledge is happiness. Pleasure can be based on false information as long as the information makes someone happy. White lies are false statements, yet they are called white lies because they are for the benefit of others.
ReplyDeleteI think that limited ignorance is bliss. Some knowledge is the key to happiness, like knowing who you are and knowing what your dreams are. Knowledge like this is necessary for happiness because you cannot be truly happy without knowing who you are and what you are. However, I would not say that it is needed for you to know everything for you to be happy. For example, you don't need to know the mechanics behind a car for you to be happy to have it or to know the odds of winning a game to be happy winning. However, to continue the examples, you need to know the type of car that is it and the rules of the game to feel the happiness of winning. I think that basing your happiness on stable long-lasting things can make you feel long-lasting happiness but when you lose that happiness you feel extremely sad for a long time compared to temporary happiness which leaves you with a short period of sadness. I would prefer to have both, some long-term happiness to help when we lose the short term happiness and some short term happiness to help when we lose the long term happiness. I think that you can feel just as happy with short-term happiness as long-term happiness. Happiness from false information can make you feel just as happy as happiness from real things and when you lose happiness you feel just as sad. However, when you discover that it is false then it is essentially like losing happiness twice. Even with this I still feel that some ignorance is bliss regardless of the pain that comes from losing it.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance arguably allows people to live in the world that they want to live in. This disables them from living in the concrete and truth world. Similar to Plato, I believe that living life containing pure knowledge on life and your surroundings allows you to have a truer sense of reality and pleasure. Living with pure knowledge allows you to live in peace of mind because you would not worry about the mysteries of the world. It also unlocks true happiness in knowing the pure truth. For example, the children of the present day and I are taught that George Washington and the Founding Fathers were people of honor and the models of America. However, Today, there is evidence that members of the founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, raped women for their pleasure. They were also slave owners. Slavery is marked as a stain in the history of the United States; therefore, the Founding Fathers being slave owners shows that they were not the perfect embodyments of our country. At first, learning the truth about the Founding Fathers can be hard to believe because of their rank and stature in America’s history. However, knowing the truth allows happiness in pure truth. It takes a weight off of our minds because we know the truth and we can deal with it instead of without it. When we believe the truth that we choose is a broader way of life because it isn't the pure truth. When we are able to have concrete knowledge on life and our surroundings it enables us to have a deeper sense of happiness.
ReplyDeleteTo me, ignorance is bliss. Let's just look at the Matrix as an example. The entire first act of the movie is based around this question, eventually ending up in the infamous red or blue pill scene that kicks off the rest of the movie. In the Matrix, Neo is in a false reality, and he's relatively content living there. He works a 9 to 5 and lives his life as best he can in a world that he's come to know as his own. However, after finding out that his reality is fake, he basically breaks down, unsure what to believe as his reality is torn away and replaced with a grim future where humans are farmed like cattle by machines. In a case like this, ignorance is always bliss. I'd rather be blissfully ignorant that there's anything outside of my reality. You can also link this argument to Plato's cave, where the cave-dwellers' lives are upended when they find that their reality is merely a projection of something more real. Even in that situation, where being ignorant actively harms me, I'd still say ignorance is bliss. Personally, I'd rather stay comfortable in a reality that I know than have everything change with the introduction of something beyond what I'm comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteThis is Tyler by the way ^^"