Riera 1 Julian Riera Prof. Deij-Prado IDS 1161 30 September 2021 The Importance of Adversity In his writing, Hesse tells the story of Siddhartha’s path to enlightenment and how the unexpected experiences Siddhartha has with many different people help him in his journey to attain this enlightenment. Throughout the book, Hesse shows that these unforeseen encounters were necessary for Siddhartha to reach his goal of enlightenment. Savulescu’s argument differs from Hesse’s message in Siddhartha because he believes that any potential impediments found in a child’s prenatal scans should be removed to ensure the child can live a better life. Out of the two opposing ideas, Hesse’s viewpoint offers the best chance at achieving the good life because of how he paints Siddhartha’s journey to enlightenment in his book and how Siddhartha’s journey correlates with Joel Kupperman’s description of the good life. In “Myth One: Pursuing Comfort and Pleasure Will Lead to the Best Possible Life” of his book, Joel Kupperman goes into detail about the two values comfort and pleasure. Kupperman describes pleasure as something that lasts a certain amount of time, whether that be an hour, a day, or a week. He also states that pleasure and wanting relate to one another. Kupperman then goes on to talk about three arguments of how pleasure in someone’s life is valued. The first argument is found in the teachings of Buddha (c. 500 BCE) and it states, “Pleasures are most enjoyed when they are not always easy and immediate. Therefore a high degree of pleasure requires that sometimes there is waiting and difficulty. These involve frustration. Hence a high degree of pleasure entails a high degree of pain” (Kupperman 15). The second states that changes Riera 2 in a person’s life that would increase pleasure only have that result for a certain amount of time. The third states “not all pleasures are alike in value, and that there can be wide variation” (Kupperman 15). Hesse’s viewpoint offers a better chance at achieving the good life than Savulecu’s because of how Hesse describes Siddhartha’s path to enlightenment in his book. Siddhartha’s path throughout the book is heavily influenced by the people he meets and what he learns from each of them. Siddhartha’s encounters with the Samanas, Guatama, Kamala, and the ferryman allowed him to grow and get closer to his goal. Siddhartha’s encounters with the Samanas and Guatama taught him to understand that there is more than one way of living and different ways to achieve enlightenment. This is evident when Siddhartha states, “I have grown distrustful and tired against teachings and learning, and that my faith in words, which are brought to us by teachers is small'' (Hesse 29). Siddhartha realizes that he must experience the world and what it is like to have desires instead of just learning from teachings. Siddhartha’s next experience was with Kamala and the “childlike people”, where he is exposed to worldly and sexual desires. Siddhartha had adapted their lifestyle just as the author writes, “He had been captured by the world, by lust, covetousness, sloth, and finally also by that vice which he had used to despise and mock the most as the most foolish one of all vices: greed. Property, possessions, and riches also had finally captured him” (Hesse). Later in the book, Siddhartha then encounters the ferryman. While Siddhartha spent his time with the Ferryman, he faced adversity such as the death of Kamala and his son running away from him. This adversity allowed Siddhartha to grow individually and finally reach his goal of enlightenment. This adversity is the difficulty and pain that was described to be necessary for pleasure in the first argument in Kupperman’s book. Riera 3 The way Hesse shows Siddhartha overcome adversity and reach enlightenment contradicts Savulecu’s viewpoint because it shows how Siddhartha faces and overcomes impediments in his life, rather than trying to avoid them, which leads to him finding enlightenment. Hesse’s argument offers the best chance to achieve the good life that Kupperman describes because of the way he explains how Siddhartha was able to reach enlightenment by having to experience pain and difficulty in his journey. Riera 4 Works Cited Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha: An Indian Tale. Penguin Books, 2003. Kupperman, Joel J. Six Myths about the Good Life: Thinking about What Has Value. Hackett, 2006.
