I have said before that the implicit yet common understanding of happiness today is preference satisfaction.1 It is the view that sees the standards of happiness to be internal to the agent, existing solely within the purview of the individual. “To each, his own.” This is closely associated with what I have described as cultural existentialism.2 The increasing pluralism of Western society has birthed a state of affairs in which there is no longer a common understanding of the good.3 What remains is the individual’s assessment, protected by law–insofar as he or she does not impinge on the rights of others. But if this view of happiness is pushed to its limits, as it were, the ramifications are unsettling, to say the least.4
Continue reading “Happiness: A Brief Critique”Month: September 2020
A Sketch of Contemporary Hookup Culture
The rise of hookup culture in contemporary America appears to be closely bound up with the rise of freedom as an ultimate value.1 In my essays on cultural existentialism, I have attempted to show the centrality that this “ultimate value” has come to occupy today–as witnessed by the view of the self as “unencumbered”–as well as its interconnectedness to what I have called preference satisfaction.2 The phenomenon of hookup culture as a contemporary subculture, especially among the demographic of young adults, is a poignant example of this.3 Hookup culture itself is an instance of a broader set of changes involving relationships, which I will not attempt to address here. For the time being, I offer the following brief and preliminary thoughts.
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