The Philosophical Background

Aristotle used to ask people why they were doing what they were doing. Mostly, people answered that they were doing it for the sake of something else. Aristotle kept asking his question because he wanted to learn if there is some ultimate goal in life, something we do for its own sake and not for the sake of something else. For example:

"Why are you working this job?"
"Oh, for the money, mostly."
"Why do you want the money?"
"So I can buy a boat and some other things."
"Why do you want the things?"
"Well, you know, they make life easier."
"Why do you want life to be easier?"
"So I can be happy."
"Why do you want to be happy?"
"??? What do you mean? I just do."

No matter where it started -- "Why do you want to get married?" "lose weight?" "have an adventure?" "Why are you sacrificing to the gods?" -- it was always for the sake of something else for the sake of something else and so on until it came to being happy and there it stopped. Aristotle concluded that happiness is the one thing that we want for its own sake, the ultimate goal of all our desires.

Sometimes people would say that they wanted happiness in order to share it with others. But when asked why they wanted to share it, it was because sharing made them happy, so at the end of the line there was a loop of happy and sharing and happy and sharing that always came back to being happy.

So what if we could take a shortcut -- avoid so many unnecessary expenses of time and energy and go directly to happiness? Lower tension, raise energy, and we're home free with happiness to share.

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