Single Idea 14884

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness]

Full Idea

If happiness were the goal, then animals would be the highest creatures. Their cynicism is grounded in forgetfulness: that is the shortest path to happiness, even if it is a happiness with little value.

Gist of Idea

The shortest path to happiness is forgetfulness, the path of animals (but of little value)

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1872-74 [1873], 29 [143])

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Unpublished of 'Unfashionable Obs' period (v 11)', ed/tr. Gray,Richard T. [Stanford 1995], p.257


A Reaction

I would be reluctant to describe an apparently contented cow as 'happy'. Is a comatose person happy? Maybe happiness is fulfilling one's nature, like a monkey swinging through trees?