| This question <169|250> overall <170|177> MK: <81|177>. |
| Question 5: Can one say that happiness is the only true wealth? |
| [174] MK: I find BBQ's submission [169] to question number 5 interesting, and it certainly made me think. Yet I believe that it is too easy to get wrapped up in the “happines as wealth” question/claim as a philosophical type inquiry. I don't believe that the present context asks us to evaluate the claim on a moral basis, or an epistemic basis-- I may be incorrect, but I believe the question is best answered with the application of what we are presently studying. |
| That said, I understand Marx as regarding wealth as 'anything tangible that enhances human life'-- such as; clean air, clean water, monies, etc.. I don't believe that Marx had intended that happiness in and of itself qualify as wealth. The claim that wealth “enhances” human life suggests that the wealth may lead to a mind-set or physical response that is enhanced-- and that feeling of enhancement may in fact be the feeling of happiness. But happiness itself is not wealth. |
| Afterall there is no way to quantify happiness-- and any true measure of wealth must have some measure. (Shouldn't it?) |
| Hans: I said something similar, in quite different words, in [155]. |
| Pisciphiliac: If wealth is an input and happiness is an output (as Hans stated in an earlier email), then you should be able to quantify happiness. Are you implying that you can quantify wealth? Can you quantify the inputs without being able to quantify the outputs? |
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