The Search Of Happiness Essay

Macintyre’s after good life philosophy exposed the state of modern moral opinions and discourse that has failed to be rational and the failure to admit the irrational nature. His view was that the enlightenment was detrimental to the morals as enshrined in the prehistoric times and that morals are not supposed to be exclusively subjective or tied to and individuals opinions. He held the basic Aristotle’s assumptions on man’s nature that he is the way he is and this is distinctly different from how man should be. Enlightenment does not offer any alternative that can replace teleology.
Albert Camus introduces the philosophy of man’s absurdity and the futile search of meaning, clarity and unity in a world devoid of God and existing eternal truths or values. He describes the Sisyphus, who is a Greek mythological figure who had been condemned to repeat endlessly the task of pushing a boulder up a mountain only to see that it rolls down again. Thais is compared to man’s life where the struggle itself is enough to convince man’s heart and one must imagine Sisyphus is happy. There are absurd situations which govern man’s life.
The hope for tomorrow forms a basic basis that is supposed to keep man happy. However, tomorrow brings man closer to death which is man’s ultimate enemy. People live as if they are all oblivious of the impending catastrophe of death, should the world be stripped off the romanticism, it shall be a hostile and strange foreign place which would be inhuman. Based on this, science has completely fallen short of explaining the world and ends up in absolute metaphors and abstractions which are absurd to human beings.
Man is faced with many absurd situations which affect the way he perceives life and happiness. Must man follow all the ethical rules whose basis is in higher powers and justification? There shall be no need of such if man has to live happily. He must realize that life is short and has limited time frames and hence he must utilize the short time fully.
Sisyphus as outlined by Camus defied gods and put death to a stop by chaining it so that no human can die. Death was later liberated and it came a time, for Sisyphus to die but he deceitfully escaped to the underworld. When the gods captured him, he was punished to push a rock up a mountain only to see it roll down which was completely meaningless. This is reflected today in the daily working conditions of men in offices and factories who do jobs in futility. The realization of this can be a tragedy. However it is the tragedy that leads to realization of one’s futile tasks which leads to contentment and acceptance of one’s fate. Therefore, man can be happy if he only acknowledges the futility and absurdity of the tasks that one gets involved in.