Semi interesting musings on the difference between unhappiness and despair from Kieran Setiya.
The nub of the argument:
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…if despair is unhappiness about the impossibility of achieving some good, the good must be an object of commitment – or else irrelevant to one’s happiness – and so it must be something one thinks one could achieve. At the very least, one must hope for its attainment, and in hoping believe that it is possible. It follows that despair is epistemically irrational: it depends on having contradictory beliefs.
The “irrationality of unhappiness” turns on the further claim that all unhappiness is despair. For how could one be unhappy about the frustration of an end one thinks one could achieve?
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Even philosopher, Setiya, admits it’s a good illustration of how philosophy fails to get to grips with life as we live it.
He points to the case of a fan who supports an unsuccessful team. In this formulation, to commit oneself to something that is out of one’s control is irrational, even though it’s hard to see why there is any muddled thinking. Setiya relates this to the difference between pure and practical reason. I feel a Wikipedia search coming on…
