Hanna-Joy Farooq
345-BXH-17
Program-related assignment
Being heart happy
an essay on happiness
in Dawson's cin/vid/comm program
Humanities
Fall 2012
Dawson College
Being heart happy
an essay on happiness in Dawson's cin/vid/comm program
In this essay, I will show that my program - cinema/video/communications aspires to heart, or healthy, happiness. I will prove this first by defining what this
level of happiness consists of, according to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. I will
then relate his definition to my program by drawing parallels between the
filmmaking courses at Dawson and his idea that people who have heart happiness
are always in the process of leaving pain behind. Second, I will show that the way
students undergo the cin/vid/comm program (as a two-year pre-university
program) further promotes heart happiness because the students are expected to
pursue higher education in order to expand their skills in specific areas - like sound
or editing - so that they can become better filmmakers and, by extension, happier
people. Finally, I will show that my program does not aspire to what Aristotle
defines as base, or belly, happiness. I will make my case by citing certain passages in
Shakespeare's King Henry V that give insight into the relationship between pain and
happiness.
According to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, there are three levels of
happiness: happiness as pleasure (base, or belly, level), happiness as honour
(healthy, or heart, level) and happiness that comes from within, or the
contemplative life. 1 This last level is the most difficult to attain and is seldom
reached. This level is not very relevant to Dawson's cinema program. However,
heart happiness, or happiness as the result of doing one's duty, does pertain to the
program. According to the theory, people who are 'heart' happy are always in the
process of leaving pain behind, rather than seeking to avoid it like those who are
'belly' happy. In other words, happiness comes as the result of doing one's duty.
When one's duty is done, there may well be a reward waiting (honour) which
exceeds any pleasure brought about by temporary (base) happiness. Throughout
the four semesters that encompass Dawson's cinema program, students work on
1
McKeon, Richard, Introduction to Aristotle, p. 312
film projects that will eventually be showcased to their peers, critiqued by their
mentors, and submitted, by way of a portfolio, to various university programs. As
Aristotle puts it: "[...] men seem to pursue honour in order that they may be assured of
their goodness; at least it is by men of practical wisdom that they seek to be honoured,
and among those who know them, and on the ground of their virtue...” 2 Students are
involved in each stage of the time-consuming process that is filmmaking, from the
development of a concept or an idea, to drafting a script, casting, shooting, editing
and so on. For such students, the fruit of their labour represents the validation of
their talents and of their acquired skills. Throughout their studies, cinema students
continuously put in work because they want to know that they are good and getting
better. The students are in the process of leaving pain behind in that they are
working to reap the reward that is honour by way of acknowledgement of their
good work by peers and mentors alike.
As previously stated, the program is designed as a two-year, pre-university
program. Each of the four semesters that get completed endows students with
filmmaking knowledge but the last semester is by no means the end of the learning
process. Most students are expected to continue in the field of cinema when they
reach university, specializing in a specific aspect like film theory, sound or editing.
This shows that the program, through the way it is organized, promotes heart
happiness because students are encouraged to keep reaching further (academically
speaking) because in the long run, it will make them better filmmakers. From
Aristotle: "[...] happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue [...]
By human virtue we mean not that of the body but that of the soul; and happiness also
we call an activity of the soul."3 He means that happiness is good that is practised, for
good, or virtue that is not shown through activity is akin to being asleep. Further, he
adds: "[...] the virtues we get by first exercising them [...] For the things we have to
learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them [...]"4 In relation to the program,
Ibid.
McKeon, Richard, Introduction to Aristotle, p. 328.
4 McKeon, Richard, Introduction to Aristotle, p. 331.
2
3
students take courses where they learn how to make movies, so that later in life they
can actually make movies. Students in the program do good by learning and then by
concretely applying the knowledge through their projects, and then they get the
reward of their finished production.
The cinema program does not aspire to base, or belly, happiness. As per
Aristotle, base happiness is pleasure and the avoidance of pain. 5 When pleasure is
the base for happiness, it does not last for long because it only provides temporary
satisfaction. To be base happy is to condemn oneself to pain because pain will be
there to offset pleasure. The cinema program, on the other hand, aspires to a higher,
heart level of happiness. As stated, students work to produce movies and other
media projects that will stand the test of time. The happiness that the students who
can look back on their finished works have will last longer than any temporal
pleasure. A good example of base happiness and the avoidance of pain is in
Shakespeare's King Henry V, on the topic of men dying at war: "[...] some swearing,
some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives felt poor behind them, some upon the
debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well,
that die in a battle [...]"6 The speaker is making the case that to die such a death is
deplorable and regrettable. This is an example of base happiness because the
speaker's reason for this death being deplorable is the fact that the pain could have
been avoided. Cinema does not aspire to this level of happiness because it is a long,
time-consuming process in which participants reap the rewards only after all the
work is completed (in other words, you have to make sacrifices). The king sees
things differently from the speaker. The king has a view in line with heart happiness,
as is apparent in one of his speeches: "To do our country loss; and if to live/The fewer
men, the greater share of honour/[...] But if it be a sin to covet honour/I am the most
offending soul alive"7 and further: "We would not die in that man's company/That
McKeon, Richard, Introduction to Aristotle, p. 312.
Shakespeare, King Henry V, p. 458.
7 Shakespeare, King Henry V, p. 460.
5
6
fears his fellowship to die with us".8 The king is happy to go into battle; he is not
afraid to die and is happily basking in the thought of honour. Whether he dies or not
is irrelevant in determining the honour of his actions, and being there, ready to fight,
is deemed honourable and makes him happy. He goes on to say: "Then shall our
names/Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd".9 For the king, happiness is not
temporary because it is associated with honour, and honour is remembered. This
idea is mirrored in the cinema program, where students are happy to work hard and
dedicate time to their projects because their happiness is tied to the honour they
associate with the completion of their projects, the semesters and eventually of the
program itself.
In this essay, I have shown that my program - cin/vid/comm - aspires to
healthy, or heart, happiness. I have done this by defining what it is according to
Aristotle and relating his definition to the process of filmmaking. I have also shown
that the way the program is organized further promotes heart happiness by pushing
students to become better filmmakers and by extension happier people. Lastly, I
have shown that my program does not aspire to base, or belly, happiness by using
examples from Shakespeare's King Henry V and relating them to the cinema
program.
8
9
Ibid.
Ibid.
Works cited
McKeon, Richard, Introduction to Aristotle. New York: The Modern Library, 1947.
Print.
Shakespeare, King Henry V. London: Chancellor Press, 1984. Print.