Abstract
This document explores the relationship between truth and happiness, examining the philosophical perspectives of Kant and Nietzsche on the matter. It delves into the idea that truth must be preferred over happiness, and that the search for truth can be linked to the search for happiness. The document also questions the hierarchy of truth over happiness, suggesting that there may be a more intimate and subtle link between the two.
Extract
[...] But what would happen to the quest for truth in the moral sense? That is, could we live happily if we lived in a lie? Could we be happy if we did not live in the universal truth? According to Kant, yes it is always possible, on the condition of making the lie universal, that is to say, making it common to a group of the population. Let's take the case of religion and its beliefs, certainly we can demonstrate through science that the creation of the universe is due to the big bang, but what would happen if the explanation of the universe were to be a 'lie' fostered by religion? [...]
[...] Man, he says, cannot 'learn to forget' and is therefore faced with the impossibility of accessing fully, because he is endowed with intellectual and sensory abilities that make it so that he will never be able to fully enjoy the present moment, and therefore access happiness. In conclusion, it would therefore be due to the very intellectual abilities that push us to search for happiness that we would never be able to achieve it fully. In conclusion, it is certainly possible to establish a hierarchy of happiness over truth. We are beings constantly seeking a better life, and a life made of pleasures and joys. [...]
[...] However, it is impossible to fully dissociate the search for truth and that of happiness, because the search for happiness is essentially based on the fight against ignorance, stupidity, and errors. Finally; it is possible to prefer happiness to truth only on the condition that the happiness we aspire to would adapt to our personal fulfillment, and therefore to our personal truth, but still that it would never be possible to acquire happiness without passing through our own vision of the truth. [...]
[...] In order to answer these questions, we will first focus in the first instance on the prevalence of truth over happiness. Then, in a second instance, we will question the search for happiness; Finally, we will try to conclude by highlighting the fact that the search for truth can be linked to the search for happiness and vice versa. First, we might think in the first instance that truth would be preferable to happiness in the sense that happiness would not be linked to our actions, but would be more of a matter of chance, more or less important. [...]
[...] In fact, this would lead to the idea that we are not particularly responsible for our happiness, and that it would be due only to a concordance, and a combination of mental facts and situations that would make us arrive at this state. This question leads humans to question the prevalence of truth over happiness, but even more so, happiness and truth would not necessarily go hand in hand. But even more, it would be worth questioning the hierarchy of truth over happiness. Would truth be valued over happiness? What are the reasons that justify our preference for truth over happiness? But even more, why would the search for happiness be less important than that of truth? [...]
