Blumenberg Response 2

Nikki Abesamis

The next section I chose to talk about was in Dasein’s Care, specifically “Taking Care of Happiness” and “If Care Is Objective, Happiness Must Be Subjective”.

In “Taking Caring of Happiness” he makes a point that the relationship between medicine and morality has remained vague, and this is still true today. Here at Binghamton there is even a course taught on medical ethics. Blumenberg says that the only “bond” between the two is in the idea that happiness lies in a “secure existence”. If a guarantee of happiness is only reachable by the morale par provision then the chances of the morale definitive are bad. I’m not 100 percent sure what this statement means, but then Blumenberg says that the world costs time, and the lack of time is what turns people into despisers of morality.

I found this metaphor about time and morality to be very interesting. In order to do things your own way in life, one may feel the need to do things at their own pace. Often when people do not have the time, they will take shortcuts, cheat, or deceive for their own benefit. An example could be something as small as a student cheating during a test because he/she did not have the time to study enough for it. This can also lead to a person creating a defense mechanism or an excuse (like “Well everyone cheats anyway…” or “My professor won’t even care or find out…”).

Sometimes doing things your way ultimately means going against your owl morals, or going against a written code of conduct. It can also be looked at in another way. For example, in keeping with the medical ethics theme, let’s say a doctor with less experience may require a doctor of higher authority to be there to make certain calls or perform certain tasks. The doctor with less experience may face a situation with a patient where there is not enough time to wait for someone else to come and may treat the patient by his or herself. This does not necessarily mean they compromised their morals, but they may have done something that should not have been allowed. I think this is a metaphor that could be applied to many different situations in real life and can be looked at in many different ways. 

In the following passage entitled “If Care Is Objective, Happiness Must Be Subjective” Blumenberg says that we do not know the true meaning or definition of the word “happiness” but that each person tries in his or her own way to achieve it. I thought it was kind of ironic that this passage followed “Taking Care of Happiness”, because in “Taking Care of Happiness” he states that the bond between medicine and morality is that happiness lies in a secure existence. This makes me wonder what his personal definition of “happiness” even is. He says that we deal with the prohibition of happiness and the decree of happiness. When I first read about the prohibition of happiness I disagreed, because initially it did not make sense. Why would someone willingly forbid himself or herself of being happy? However, after thinking about it more and relating it to real-life situations, I realized that Blumenberg’s point is not entirely incorrect. For example, a good friend of mine refuses to date anyone who is not Jewish, because he fears he will disappoint his strict Jewish parents if he dates someone “different”. In my eyes he is potentially forbidding himself of happiness because of these limitations.

Although we really do not know what happiness contains, I do agree with him that happiness is subjective and depends on a person’s own thoughts and feelings.