The Study of Philosophy and the Pursuit of Happiness.

[Victor Pross]

The study of philosophy and the pursuit of happiness.

by Victor Pross

I became attracted to the study of philosophy long before I stumbled across Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Like many others, who are interested in what is considered an arcane interest, I was searching for truth and meaning and I naturally assumed that could be found in the study of philosophy. The examined life is worth living.

I read heaps of tomes on the subject during my teenage years and beyond. I found that philosophy is an endless river, meandering here and flowing there, but nowhere running dry. In the end, I have found that my happiest moments are those times when I am either creating art or contemplating it and I am also happiest when I am involved in a romantic relationship. Mind you, these two things don’t complete the puzzle, but they are major pieces that make up the puzzle, making them a center point. The interest in philosophy as always been centered on maximizing these two center points of happiness---Art and Romantic love—and the study of philosophy has been inspired to understand and master both.

For me, philosophy is the means, not an end. It is my conviction that only by truly understanding yourself can you recognize your motives, reshape your beliefs, act to achieve your goals, and find more lasting peace of mind.

It is the brevity of life that gives art and love it’s meaning—that gives life itself meaning. We have all heard the expressions “life is too short” and “this is not a dress rehearsal” Each truism is meant to accentuate the message of how brief and precious life is. “To our amazement we suddenly exist,” Schopenhauer said, “after having for countless millennia not existed; in a short while we will again not exist, also for countless millennia.”

For some, life’s relatively succinct span renders it meaningless. “What’s the point?” they ask. “It’s all going to come to an end”. And neither art nor love is enough to still this dread. This is a state of mind I have never been sympathetic to. For me, it is this very fact---the fact that life will end one day—and this fact alone—that imbues my life with vitality and meaning. An existence that never ends sounds nightmarish to me.

Granting the reality of the inevitable end, the heroic search for a meaningful and purposeful life goes on. And with varying degrees of stumbling in the dark, many people find varying degrees of satisfaction while others seem hopelessly unfulfilled. This quest can take some rather bizarre and sad turns. We see a constant plunge in religion, psychoanalysis, Anthony Robins, chakras, crystals, herbs, Prozac, recreational drug use, sexual promiscuity, marriage and children, philanthropy, Zen Buddhism, graduate school, meditation, primal screams, Dr. Laura, Deepack Chopra, UFOs beliefs, ESP, spirit contacts, scientology, transcendental meditation, power over others…and the list goes on.

All of the above seems to either fulfill people or is simply a major distraction from the inner dread they still feel. “Is this all there is?” they ask. And still, for others, “the big sleep” (death) is the big reward. Those are the types who speak of “something better” after this earthly life concludes. The projection of a ‘post-mortem happiness’ as the “meaning of life” is a theological conclusion that I have always found uproariously funny…and horribly tragic. Either the old-fashion religions or the New Age or pathology-oriented pseudomedical approaches is utterly incomprehensible to me. I find it analogous to a losing army that won’t surrender or Samson pushing the pillars in a final frenzy of strength before he dies.

Everyone has a philosophy of life, but few of us have the privilege or leisure to sit around and puzzle out the fine points in a formal academic manner. They tend to make it up as they go along or else siphon whatever their society offers. The great thing about having thousands of years of thinking to draw on is many of history’s wisest minds have weighed in on these subjects and have left insights and guidelines for us to use. But philosophy is also highly personal—you are your own philosopher too. Take what you can learn from others, but to arrive at a way of approaching the world that works for you, you’ll have to do the thoughtful work yourself.

Having lived a fair number of years, I think my worse mistakes in love relationships our now over (thanks to my philosophical approach to the subject) and my appreciation for the arts are reaching a zenith, but not a foreseeable limit. I have said I have found my greatest happiness in love and art. Some people need to widen their range of social contacts, but I have found my needs are met in a central relationship. Though all kinds of relationships—the family, friends, neighbors and colleagues only partially meet a hardwired need for social contact, but its ultimate fulfillment, for me, is a love relationship—one that makes all the others pale by comparison.

I am not one to say “you can never have enough friends.” For me, you can. I don’t understand people who feel this need to have a wide network of “friends” but never have any one person for whom they are especially close to. For them, quantity--not quality--is the order. I have a smidgen of the misanthrope in me, and so I don’t like most people I come across. But that does not mean that my need for a single and powerful bond with another human being is diminished or contradicted by this. It merely means that I’m highly selective and have set high standards for myself. My limited time on the earth is not to be squandered and so I’m not going to waste it by being socially promiscuous with human squalor. And yet, "to live alone," as Nietzsche said, "one must be an animal or a god."

When it comes to art, it has prevented me from going insane. Strange, people romanticize insanity because they believe it is the thing behind the art. For me, is the thing in front of the art, the roadblock and police barrier…that I am I pushing against. In art, I can create the world anew. I am in control. In love, I can share that world with a special person—a person that I chose to be with. If I were to merge love and art, as it applies to my life, I would say that behind every great artist is a good woman who inspires him.

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Edited March 6, 2007 by Victor Pross