Quote:
Originally Posted by Dotoar
What exactly do you mean by 'society' and by what measures do you affirm 'happiness'? And speaking of utilitarism, how big part of the society has to be gratified and, relative to the measure, to what extent?
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To me, a society means people getting together and agreeing to abolish some freedoms for the betterment of all members of society, such as f.ex the freedom to kill and steal. It means that society's people agree to (or at least generally behave according to) a common compromise in an effort to coexist better.
I honestly haven't look up any definitions and I've no idea if that's at all correct, actually, and it may not be the best practical definition for the purposes of this discussion. But regarding this discussion, I (ex) think of Norway as one society and Iceland as another. For example, even if Iceland did have different chieftans ruling different parts and as such could be seen as different societies, they did have an Allting where they got together and compromised for the betterment of the general populace on Iceland and so based on that, I think I can argue by my definition that "anarchic" Iceland could be regarded as one society.
I think the part of society that should be gratified are all the regular members who make compromises and follow the common rules (ex. pay taxes and follow laws). I think it is important for any society to be an environment where exploiters are not successful, exploiters being defined as someone who at some point does not compromise for selfish reasons. Generally speaking, they will be criminals breaking society's laws. Still, I think how we treat the elderly, the disabled and criminals will be reflected in the general behaviour in society's members. For example, harsher treatment of criminals may lead to more violence in society. As such, finding the best way to deal with criminals is one of the tougher problems society face, I think, and determining to what extent society should "gratify" criminals is a real challenge and also dependent on finer context.
You ask me how to affirm happiness. What does affirm mean? Are you asking how I think happiness is best achieved or are you asking how to determine whether or not people are happy? I have answers to both, but I'm not sure I wanna risk going off on an off-topic rant just yet in case I interpret your question wrong.
