Idealism vs. Realism: Understanding Will and Happiness
Idealism vs. Realism
Idealism
a) Radical distrust of the senses: This means that one has no access to reality.
b) Truth is the idea that each person forms, regardless of reality.
c) Truth is immanent: This means that the truth emerges within the subject. The truth is contained in the subject because it refers to nothing outside the subject.
d) Since immanent truth presents the problem of how communication is possible between human beings, if each has their own idea of things. Communication is possible not because of an objective reality, but because all people are given the same method to know, which culminates in the formation of the same ideas, independent of the object.
e) Truth is subjective (because the truth depends on the knowing subject) and relative (relative to each subject).
f) Idealism cannot be lived. To know the truth, one cannot distrust the senses every day. Life is different from knowing.
Realism
a) Moderate trust in the senses: Behind the senses is reason.
b) Truth occurs when the idea coincides with reality. It is the adequacy of intelligence to the thing.
c) Truth is both immanent (because the truth emerges as an idea within the subject) and transcendent (the truth is not contained in the subject, but it transcends to external reality through the word). Knowing is also the concern that this was intelligence.
d) There is no communication problem because there is a common objective reality. Because it is a reality, the same idea, taken from the common reality, exists for all.
e) It argues that there are many things, but the truth itself is objective because it refers to the known object (a reality that does not depend on us). By accessing the object, one grasps the object.
f) One can only live in realism. Knowing and living are the same, and one trusts the senses with the support of intelligence.
Understanding the Will
a) Definition: The faculty by which a person is inclined freely to what has been known and judged as good by the intellect.
b) Types of Goods:
- Useful goods: Those that are loved because they help one to reach another end (e.g., money, studies).
- Pleasurable goods: Those goods that are desired for the pleasure they cause (e.g., cigarettes, food, chocolate).
- Honest goods: Those goods that are dear not for their utility or for pleasure, but are loved for themselves (e.g., people, children).
c) Acts of the Will:
- Elicited acts: Those acts that the will performs and which consist simply of wanting the good that is understood (e.g., wanting to eat).
- Imperative acts: Those acts that the will also wants, effectively moving the person to achieve that good (e.g., to eat).
d) Acts of Man vs. Human Acts:
- Acts of man: Those acts performed by a human being in which the will does not participate or cannot participate (e.g., breathing, digestion).
- Human acts: Those acts in which the will participates or can participate. These include three types: eating, running, etc.
e) Voluntary, Involuntary, and Mixed Acts:
- Voluntary acts: Those in which there is knowledge, insight, and consent of the choice or act performed (e.g., studying, eating).
- Involuntary acts: Those that may depend on the will, but for various reasons, there is no real discussion or consent (e.g., hitting someone while having a seizure).
- Mixed acts: Those in which there is deliberation, but there are no real options to choose from (e.g., self-defense).
Is Happiness Objective or Subjective?
Happiness has an objective dimension because it is the realization of the human being. There is a human nature that does not depend on one’s freedom and longs to be fulfilled.
Living and feeling are objective realities of each of us, which are given through the intellect and will. With understanding, one can reach the truth, and with the will, one can reach the good.
Happiness is subjective but not entirely, as it is full of things that are repeated.
Evidence for Objectivity and Subjectivity of Happiness
1. All human beings yearn to be happy (objective): They crave the same thing.
2. Not all human beings are happy (subjective): It depends on each person.
3. There are many ways to be happy (subjective): Each person knows a better way to happiness and how to find it.
4. Not every path is valid to be happy (objective): As a common goal, one must find the right track to happiness.
The Role of the Will in Relation to Happiness (St. Thomas)
1. Will as nature: It is that which longs for nature. Man, by his will, desires the highest good, which is called happiness (objective).
2. Will as reason: Human beings should be happy with reason, will, and choose the means that will lead to happiness (subjective). One chooses how to live to be happy.
3. Natural will fulfilled: It is that dimension of the will that consists in knowing that it has reached a certain fullness, which is manifested in inner peace. It is human nature freely made (one wants to be happy and seeks the means to do so).
Subjective: Each person chooses how to arrive at happiness.
Objective: Because it is subjectively made, human nature is objective.
In conclusion, happiness is both objective and subjective, as it has a part that depends on the objective and a part that depends on subjective human nature. That is how one achieves the realization of absolute happiness.