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SCENE III. Maximum Happiness,
Minimum Unhappiness

1 CHRISTIANUS. Yes, I think that is a very interesting point. I can actually relate to your situation quite well.

2 KATHERINE. You can?

3 CHRISTIANUS. Yes. I had similar thoughts myself, years ago.

4 KATHERINE. Really?

5 CHRISTIANUS. Really.

6 KATHERINE. And?

7 CHRISTIANUS. And I had to do some serious soul-searching to get back my motivation.

8 KATHERINE. How did it go?

9 CHRISTIANUS. It went very well. I concluded that I couldn't get really satisfied unless I changed certain things about myself.

10 KATHERINE. What things?

11 CHRISTIANUS. Well, one thing was that I had to learn how to trust myself.

12 KATHERINE. Trust yourself?

13 CHRISTIANUS. Yes. I realized that I could get all my questions answered, even the big and perennial ones, if only I wanted them answered. But I didn't have the guts to start facing those questions, partly because I was trusting my own mind too much. So I had to work on that.

14 KATHERINE. So it’s all about trusting oneself?

15 CHRISTIANUS. Well, it’s one piece of the puzzle.

16 KATHERINE. And how does this relate to me?

17 CHRISTIANUS. It’s quite straightforward: you, too, can get all questions answered, including the big ones, if you only want them answered.

18 KATHERINE. I can?

19 CHRISTIANUS. Yes. But your wicked little mind most probably tries to convince you that it is no idea even to start looking for any answers: ‘Why waste time trying to find answers to perennial problems that simply cannot be answered?’

20 KATHERINE. Yes, I have heard similar thoughts within me.

21 CHRISTIANUS. But having heard such thoughts within you is, of course, no guarantee for that the big questions cannot be answered?

22 KATHERINE. Of course not.

23 CHRISTIANUS. And you do agree that there are big questions to be answered?

24 KATHERINE. Yes.

25 CHRISTIANUS. So you need to know the answers.

26 KATHERINE. Yes.

27 CHRISTIANUS. In fact, perhaps you already, on some level, know them?

28 KATHERINE. No, I don’t.

29 CHRISTIANUS. Well, you have to be perfectly honest with yourself. Then you may know them.

30 KATHERINE. But I am honest, Chris! I really don’t know them! I just think my life is more or less meaningless right now. That’s all I know!

31 CHRISTIANUS. Well, maybe you don’t know those answers as you know the name of your cat, or as you know the taste of a freshly made pizza?

32 KATHERINE. I am not sure I follow.

33 CHRISTIANUS. All right. Let’s take a break. It is a very demanding subject matter. And I am so hungry right now that I have a hard time concentrating anyway.

34 KATHERINE. Why don’t you take one of these crispy breadsticks while we’re waiting for the waiter to appear?

35 CHRISTIANUS. Excellent idea! Thank you!

36 KATHERINE. I am sure that they are making our pizza as we speak.

37 CHRISTIANUS. I hope you’re right!

38 KATHERINE. Amazing! You really are a typical pitta, getting all moody and jittery like that! I wish I had your metabolism! I am putting on weight all the time!

39 CHRISTIANUS. Yes, your kapha constitution is quite accentuated. That makes it hard for you to be really slim. [14]

40 KATHERINE. It certainly does!

41 CHRISTIANUS. And being overweight also might have a negative impact on the length of your life, at least if we are to believe some public health statistics. But if it’s any consolation, a pitta constitution like mine can be quite diabolical too: it is not entirely without metabolical complications either.

42 KATHERINE. You’re a good friend, Chris. But I think that you may have misunderstood me. My motive for wanting to be slim is not primarily to be ‘healthy’, or to squeeze out some maximum number of years from this body; nor is to ‘adhere’ to some public health statistics. Rather, my main concern is simply to be able to experience happiness; or, if that’s not possible, at least avoiding too much unhappiness.

43 CHRISTIANUS. You sound very Benthamian. [15]

44 KATHERINE. Well, it’s just that I like his straightforward style.

45 CHRISTIANUS. Many do. In fact, even those who aren’t lawyers may quite easily relate to his utility talk, even if they, just like the lawyers, don’t always walk it. [16] [17]

46 KATHERINE. Yes.

47 CHRISTIANUS. But let’s go back to you now, Katherine. You just said that you want to experience happiness and avoid unhappiness. What do you mean by that?

48 KATHERINE. It’s quite simple: I have no friends, I have no lovers, and I am miserable. So I want friends and lovers. Then I’ll be happy, or at least less miserable. How’s that?

49 CHRISTIANUS. It’s a start. So your idea is that losing weight will make it easier for you to find new friends and lovers?

50 KATHERINE. Yes, that’s the plan. I am just too fat right now. I can see it in the mirror, and I can see it in people’s eyes.

51 CHRISTIANUS. Maybe you are right. At least in the modern Western world, fat people are commonly perceived as rather unattractive, and therefore less appreciated, and perhaps particularly so by prospective lovers.

52 KATHERINE. Yes.

53 CHRISTIANUS. So we may say that your kapha constitution really does affect your daily life, including your love life, in a very direct way.

54 KATHERINE. Yes.

55 CHRISTIANUS. And it certainly doesn’t make you less gloomy about it, does it? [18]

56 KATHERINE. No, it doesn’t.

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Notes (SCENE III)

[14] III:39, kapha constitution: Christianus's observation may be inspired by Vasant Lad’s descriptions of a typical kapha individual: ‘Individuals with a kapha body type have a steady appetite and thirst, though digestion is slow. They can comfortably skip a meal or work without food, while it is difficult for a pitta person to concentrate without eating’ (1998, p. 25); and: ‘With their larger frames and constitutions dominated by the water and earth elements, kaphas tend to gain weight and have difficulty taking it off’ (1998, p. 25).

[15] III:43, Benthamian: Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), British social reformer, based his version of utilitarianism on the ‘principle of utility’, a decision-criterion that accepts an action if it may result in a maximization of happiness. Bentham was ‘much less concerned with the more abstract and metaphysical questions involved’ (Dye 1972, p. 281), and his idea of happiness is to be understood very concretely by the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain and suffering in individuals (Postema 2001, p. 138). Says Bentham (1988, p. 28): ‘the only consequences that men are at all interested in, what are they but pain and pleasure?’ Bentham’s maximization, according to Postema (2001, p. 139), is not limited in scope only to all individual human beings, but includes all sentient, suffering beings.

JEREMY BENTHAM (1988), A Fragment on Government. The New Authoritative Edition by J. H. Burns and H. L. A. Hart with an Introduction by Ross Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

JAMES W. DYE (1972), ‘Bentham, Jeremy’ in Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. and The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, pp. 280–285.

GERALD J. POSTEMA (2001), ‘Bentham, Jeremy’ in Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker, eds., Routledge Encyclopedia of Ethics. Second edition. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 137–141.

[16] III:45, those who aren’t lawyers: Christianus may here refer to a passage in which Jeremy Bentham says, ‘and pain and pleasure at least, are words which a man has no need, we may hope, to go to a Lawyer to know the meaning of’ (1988, p. 28).

[17] III:45, walk it: Christianus presumably wants to say that ‘walking the utility talk’ is different from just talking about it. Maybe he also wants to say that there is something about the utility talk that makes it harder to walk it?

[18] III:55, make you less gloomy: Christianus probably tries to say that having a kapha constitution may make Katherine more prone to suffer from depression.

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HOW TO CITE: Bo C. Klintberg (2008), ‘Maximum Happiness, Minimum Unhappiness’ in Katherine’s Questionable Quest for Love and Happiness. Online edition of Philosophical Plays, 1 Jan. 2008. Retrieved [today’s date] from http://philosophicalplays.googlepages.com/pgKQQv1sc03.htm.

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