Doubt and Happiness
You may recall that this view holds we don’t know what everything is made of because we can’t know anything for certain and that we should simply try to live life as long and as happily as we can.
Does it follow that if we can’t know anything for certain that we can’t know anything at all? Might we not know some things fairly well even if not perfectly? If not how could we possibly try to live life as long and as happily as we can?
Even if we could know how to live a long and happy life, what makes a long life a better life than a short one? Is it just quantity of life or quality also? Perhaps we mean we should try to live as long as possible provided we are happy. But what do we mean by being happy; is it, as some suggest, having as much pleasure and as little pain as possible?
What if I were to tell you through a certain door you will find a “pleasure machine” that, should you lie down and plug in, you will experience the greatest and most varied pleasures imaginable, while being kept alive with tubes and pumps until you die blissfully at 90 years of age. Further, you understand that you can unplug any time you want except that you know you will never want to unplug.
Would you right now walk through that door and plug in? If not, then happiness for you cannot be a life with the most pleasure and the least pain. So what else could it mean to live as long and as happily as we can?
As before, there may be elements of the answers that make sense but there are difficulties. Shall we move on to God and Rules? This should be tricky!
