Readings in Ethics: A Reflection

Readings in Ethics 1
READINGS IN ETHICS: A REFLECTION
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Readings in Ethics 2
Readings in Ethics: A Reflection
I. THE HAPPINESS TURN
The good life is a philological question just as a mundane one. For as early as humans have existed, happiness has been promise and a history at once. In “The happiness turn,” Ahmed (2007-2008) offers a sweeping overview in a special issue about happiness. Tracing, succinctly, happiness from a classic notion of “good life” in Ancient Greece, Ahmed meta-critiques happiness across disciplines. Specifically, Ahmed explores, in a panoramic presentation of several papers on happiness, meanings and uses of happiness in old and modern lives. If anything, happiness, argues Ahmed, is an elusive concept constantly redefined over generations, across disciplines and in different communities. The discussion of a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) vs. GHI (Global Happiness Index) is, for one, symbolic of a perennial dilemma political economist and laypersons experience: whether material gain, achieved by means of frugality and industriousness, is a clear – only? - path to happiness. This dilemma, explains Ahmed, cuts across each and every layer of life so much as confusion occurs as to whether cursory moments of pleasure or joy arr actual instances of happiness or not. Moreover, happiness is discussed as a matter of public policy. Offering a few examples on ways governments cater for citizen wellbeing, Ahmed problematizes happiness as not only a question of individual welfare but, increasingly and more importantly, as a matter of public debate and action. The superficiality of incidents of passing pleasure and joy are, accordingly, examples of “stupid optimism.” Given current state of world affairs, commercialism is shaping rapidly day-to-day experiences of billions. To millions, emerging from poverty, happiness is ahead in some nearby destination, a promise about to be achieved
– just as Ahmed argues for happiness as not something identifiable per se yet a promise of happy days to come and old happy memories and days.
II. IN THE WAKE: ON BLACKNESS AND BEING
The awakening is a powerful word running deep in black history. Shipped, cramped and
Readings in Ethics 3
humiliated, unnumbered scores o...