In order to have any discussion about the notion of ‘happiness’, it is first necessary to develop at least some definition of what is being discussed. Whilst there have been many attempts to define happiness — like the maximisation of pleasure and minimisation of pain or as a complete satisfaction of our desires, for example — what is most fundamental and irrefutable is that happiness is a product of the mind, an experience just like love or anger or devotion or any other. Perhaps it is even possible to call it a very powerful emotion that is even seen to be the main purpose or goal in life. But what does it actually mean to be happy, what do we mean when we wish a friend to “be happy”? Are we wishing them to have an instant moment of happiness
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This belief stems from the understanding that the existing world and reality is essentially meaningless and that nothing can ever be known. Nihilism, according to Nietzsche is “our heritage, our fate”, it is something which cannot be avoided and, in fact, has to to be gracefully accepted and has to become the starting point from which function as thinkers. It is “the conviction of absolute untenability of existence when it is a matter of the highest values that one recognises”, and whilst this may be a pessimistic or a radically sceptic viewpoint, it does not have to be if we find a solution for it, or at least find a way to tolerate such a reality. By the nineteenth century, it is clear to philosophers like Nietzsche that philosophy has come to a dead end and that epistemological questions which the Greeks asked either has no answers, or have too many answers. Truth exists only from a God’s point of view, hence Nietzsche’s acclaimed statement “God is dead” — truth is dead with it too. God is the one that knows all and sees all, God is all the perspectives, all the truths, and without him there is no truth. So even if there is such a notion as ‘truth’, our consciousness has no access to it, and it therefore should not even be of concern to us. The realisation that God is dead should lead us towards the confrontation with the meaningless universe and a chaotic nature of all being. But the death of God and Nihilism is not seen as a problem, but rather a possible solution — it is a release which allows us to live a meaningful life in a meaningless world, and that is through the process of what he calls
This belief stems from the understanding that the existing world and reality is essentially meaningless and that nothing can ever be known. Nihilism, according to Nietzsche is “our heritage, our fate”, it is something which cannot be avoided and, in fact, has to to be gracefully accepted and has to become the starting point from which function as thinkers. It is “the conviction of absolute untenability of existence when it is a matter of the highest values that one recognises”, and whilst this may be a pessimistic or a radically sceptic viewpoint, it does not have to be if we find a solution for it, or at least find a way to tolerate such a reality. By the nineteenth century, it is clear to philosophers like Nietzsche that philosophy has come to a dead end and that epistemological questions which the Greeks asked either has no answers, or have too many answers. Truth exists only from a God’s point of view, hence Nietzsche’s acclaimed statement “God is dead” — truth is dead with it too. God is the one that knows all and sees all, God is all the perspectives, all the truths, and without him there is no truth. So even if there is such a notion as ‘truth’, our consciousness has no access to it, and it therefore should not even be of concern to us. The realisation that God is dead should lead us towards the confrontation with the meaningless universe and a chaotic nature of all being. But the death of God and Nihilism is not seen as a problem, but rather a possible solution — it is a release which allows us to live a meaningful life in a meaningless world, and that is through the process of what he calls