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chapter 7 The Relation of Goodness to Happiness By a “good person” is meant, as we have already explained, the one who takes a non-egoistic, unselfish interest in the fate of others. The question now arises whether this character is a source of happiness for the person who has it; whether the good person has a prospect of gaining happiness through his goodness. In answering this question, it clearly depends on whether those in whose fate the good person is interested are happy or unhappy: if they are happy, his own happiness will grow through his interest in their fate, through his sympathetic joy—in that case, being good is a pleasure; on the other hand, if they are unhappy and, what is more, the good person cannot assist them, his own suffering will grow through his interest in their unhappiness,through his compassion —in that case, being good is a torment. So let us start by trying to establish,as far as we can in general terms,whether human beings are happy or unhappy. Nearly every person, if we observe him at a particular moment of his life, is found occupied with satisfying one of his instincts, either his self-interest (greed) or his sexual drive or his ambition (desire for fame,riches,and respect). This striving itself and the labors associated with it are felt as pain. If he actually achieves the desired object, he does not feel permanently happy through its possession; instead, as soon as he has it, it appears to him unsatisfying, indeed worthless (this is why the only love that lasts is unhappy love). Hence, either he will set himself to work toward some other goal, only to be disillusioned again when it is reached, or else he will find nothing more that seems to him worthy of striving and working for. In that case, he will be overcome by that unbearable sense of emptiness, of satiety, which is at first the cause of boredom, and then its effect. Compared to this state of boredom,painful labor represents by far the more bearable situation. As the Bible scornfully comments about life, “its pride is only toil and trouble.”32 The only choice remaining for us is between the bearable suffering of painful labor and the unbearable suffering of boredom. Above all, compared with other creatures, human beings are the most unhappy . The human body has the most complex nervous system and is therefore the most sensitive to pain. Occasions for this pain are found not solely in the present, as with animals, but in the past, present, and future, so that in almost every moment people are filled with cares about the future or regrets about the past. Due to its great complexity, something is usually out of order in the human organism, causing pain. We are afraid of death and yet continually get closer to it. Human beings certainly feel not only suffering but also happiness more strongly than any other creature. But that is of no use, since we get to enjoy only very little happiness.For most people, life grants happiness only in those moments when an object one has striven for is gained: achieving the longedfor possession of a woman, a fortune, or a position gives pleasure; yet what is achieved soon loses its appeal. The more long-lasting pleasures that still exist apart from these fleeting ones, namely, intellectual pleasures, are unavailable to most people by reason of their intellectual natures, as we have already said. What follows from this fact that human life is over-rich in feelings of displeasure and poor in sensations of pleasure is that the good person who takes a selfless interest in the fate of his fellows will have many sufferings and few joys from this interest. He will commonly feel compassion without being able to help and seldom have an occasion for sympathetic joy. The better he is, that is, the greater the number of those whose fate he takes an interest in, and the more intense this interest is, the more suffering he draws upon himself out of compassion. The bad person, in contrast, takes no interest in the sufferings and joys of others.Their suffering does not arouse his compassion, nor their joys his own joy. From this it is now evident that, since human suffering greatly outweighs human happiness, as we have already said, the bad person is better off than the good one. While some...

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