Please write a clear, coherent essay on ONE of the following topics. Be careful to state you thesis at the beginning of your paper (avoid generalizations of the sort, “throughout history…” or “happiness has been a subject of interest since…”).

Learning Goal: I’m working on a philosophy writing question and need support to help me learn.

Please write a clear, coherent essay on ONE of the following topics. Be careful to state you thesis at the beginning of your paper (avoid generalizations of the sort, “throughout history…” or “happiness has been a subject of interest since…”). In the conclusion, summarize how you have demonstrated it. Be sure to quote AT LEAST THREE short passages (not more than a few words) from the assigned materials in your essay (these may include materials in the PowerPoints), drawn principally from readings covered since the previous paper. NOTE: The topics are meant to stimulate thinking; you are encouraged to formulate an argument of your own.

Topic 1: Are people naturally drawn to pleasure, and is it therefore to be considered a good, or even the only good? Does this mean that carnal pleasures are the only things worth pursuing, or do intellectual and moral pleasures count as well? Does the pursuit of pleasure undermine a commitment to friends, to justice, to social welfare? Is feeling pleasure equivalent to happiness?

Topic 2: Desires have many goals: we may desire food, a romantic partner, immortality, a cigarette. Are all these desires of the same kind, or are they distinct? Does the fulfillment of a desire always lead to happiness – any and every desire, or just some, or perhaps none at all? Is it better to be free of desire, since desire presupposes lack, and lack means pain?

Topic 3: Consumerism is predicated on desire; but desire for what? For good things? For things that we are persuaded are good? Do we sometimes desire a thing not for what it is, but for what it might say about us, a sign of prestige or wealth or good taste? Do some desires take the form of displacement, because we repress desires we are ashamed of and so they manifest themselves in more innocent drives? When people’s desires are driven by advertising, can they really be happy?

Topic 4: Can we be happy if we feel powerless? Is happiness the privilege of the well to do, of those who enjoy social esteem, or other forms of power? Are the oppressed deprived of happiness, or can they be happy and still desire equality and freedom?

Topic 5: Is happiness an emotion? Is it a good emotion, and is unhappiness therefore a bad emotion? Is there ever a positive side to unhappiness? Does feeling unhappy necessarily mean that one needs therapy?

Topic 6: What is the relationship between happiness and conformity? Must those who are different sacrifice their happiness? Is it true that everyone desires happiness and that those who do not are perverse – or might one wish to suffer, given the way the world is? Is suffering dignified, and happiness just a fool’s pleasure?