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Happiness

I seem compelled to subscribe to the somewhat Panglossian idea that as everything is as it is, and could not have been any other way (cos it isn't), then it is the best it can be. Therefore, we should just be happy with it and make the best of it. Am I being naive or stupid or is there a reasonable defence to this way of thinking?
Accepted:
December 2, 2005

Comments

Alexander George
December 2, 2005 (changed December 2, 2005) Permalink

Everything certainly is as it is. (I think Dr. Pangloss' idea was that nothing could be better than it is.) I don't see why it follows that things couldn't have turned out differently. It's true that I didn't have pizza this evening. But I could have ordered it. And if I had, things would have been different. And even if you could somehow show that nothing could be different from the way it actually is, why must I then be happy about how things are? Can't one lament some bad situation one sees no way of avoiding?

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