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College Decisions: Aristotle and Husserls Philosophical Inquiry

Luisa M Gonzalez
University of Texas at El Paso
PHIL 2306
November, 18, 2015

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Between the years of 2007 and 2013, my hometown went through a massive grip of
violence. Ciudad Juarez, also known as the worlds most dangerous city back in those years,
pushed many of its residents, at least those lucky enough to do so, to move away from itself. This
event reshaped the lifestyle for many. In my case, economic hardship struck my family at a much
higher rate than expected. With both of my parents leaving their jobs and the higher cost of living
in the U.S, my family has gone through years of struggle since then. Yes, compared to the
constant fearful lifestyle we were undergoing, coming to the U.S was the best decision we could
have made, but now that were here, the realities and fears shifted from physical harm to
economic. In the spring of 2014, I was bound to start college, having graduated a semester early
from high school, but the fear of getting further in economic struggle and in future exaggerated
debt, kept me from doing so. Fast forwarding a couple of months, now that I am in college, the
real issue relies in the question, what should I study?
With high tuition rates, massive loan repayment and debt and difficulties to find job postgraduation, college students nowadays are focusing more in majors that will, suggested based on
stats, generate more income for them in the future, setting aside their passions and dreams. This
does not mean that getting a major in Economics or Petroleum Engineering will not get students
far, or that will not make them happy, but the number of students choosing to study such degrees
is simply doing so out of suggested future income rates rather than interest for the subject.
Personally, I have been victim of this thinking, analyzing which major is more convenient in the
future for me, instead of focusing on my passions and interests. This thinking has also been
influenced by the constant social pressure that suggests that those who have achieved success are
merely the ones who have achieved high incomes; a higher reason is the settlement of dispute
that comes into play on the feeling of compromise towards my parents, in which I feel like I

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somehow have to repay them in a certain way for their constant sacrifices for me to be where I
am. So how should I choose between the wide ranges of majors? How should I balance my
decision based on passion, interests, abilities, future concerns, responsibility and secureness?
Would it be smart to study something with abilities unknown to me? Should I even be concerned
for the future? To what extent does my major determine where I will end up in life? And the
ultimate question, what will make me the happiest? It is inevitable to feel lost when theres only
your judgment to make decisions alone with no safe couch to land on.
A German philosopher, whom has guided me along with him in a search for an answer is
Edmund Husserl with his phenomenological ethics. His development on the identity of an
individuals particular responsibility in a particular realm of love, moving from static
phenomenology to one based on genetic phenomenology, focuses on personal projects and the
ought which determine those projects, further explained as focus on The Truth of the Will and
on the process of Renewal and Critique. The process of renewal and critique is described as:
A process that involves critique of the traditions and convictions we have inherited, as
well as of those which are personally developed. It is only through this critical process
that we are able to appropriately take those inherited convictions up as our own In
renewing, we examine what has been passively handed down to us and we make it a part
of our active, free position-taking. We are capable of this precisely because we have
autonomous reason and are self-determining (Husserlian Ethics, 165).
Husserl focuses on the development and the character of the ethical individual, one who
questions human conditions and human involvement, in which the individual seeks the best
possible life attainable through the development of habits, a setting of sense and passive

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association. With this said, he goes on to questions himself how to determine ones absolute
ought with the autonomous reason that each individual has. He describes the absolute ought as
Absolute to the extent that it is only in adhering to this ought that I am who I amIt commands
me to choose the best possible lifeThe best possible life for Husserl is one that admits of no
regrets (Husserlian Ethics, 163-164) in other words, accepting and adhering to ones personal
ought is what ultimately leads us towards living the best possible life and then further explains
how the ought is attained only by being called to a vocation. His described calling to ones
vocation is described as follows:
We feel a personal love for a particular realm of value. For instance, the vocation of
academic philosophy may be a love for the realm of value of teaching or philosophical
inquiry. Other vocations have other realms of value such as the doctor whose realm of
value is health or easing the pain and suffering of others. It is only when we choose our
vocation in compliance with that love for a realm of value that we are following our
professional duty and claiming an authentic life. It is that love for a realm of value that
gives life an encompassing, rational goal. In developing our habits and convictions in line
with this goal, we are realizing a true self. This is our personal telos (Husserlian Ethics,
164).
In brief, Husserl makes an emphasis on the value of seeking finding ones vocation, and how
only and only by being completely obsessed and in love with it, we will find ourselves living an
authentic, ethical life. This in mind, Husserl would most likely give me the advice of following,
in this case studying, whatever academic realm I hold to view as the one with the greatest value.

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Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle and his Nicomachean Ethics discuss valuable points
worth considering into my decision making. He entails the idea that ethics, as well as happiness,
are messy in his works on virtue. To him, virtue ethics is what directly impacts the character by
determining what matters to each individual the most. He explains how humans are emotional
beings, and how virtue is the disposition of the soul when one has to choose between actions and
feelings. Within this, he goes on explaining the two types of virtues: intellectual virtues- virtues
obtained by individually learning to choose them and improving one self and moral virtues also
known as habits. This all sums up to the idea that happiness or eudaimonea is an activity of
soul in accordance with perfect virtue (Aristotle, 63) meaning that it consists of actions of the
soul according to reason. He believes and argues that happiness is the highest good, the best,
noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world (Aristotle, 58) and something final and selfsufficient, and the end of action (Aristotle, 54) meaning that whatever course of action we chose
to take it should ultimately lead us to an end in happiness. He further explains how this state is
attainable through the practice of moral and intellectual virtues and through finding a moderate
mean between excess and deficiency in all aspects. With this argued, If eudaimonea is the highest
good of all actions and is in fact the ultimate end for everything and individual must do, then it
leads me to understand that decision making should entail finding a balance between the things
that matter to each individual the most by finding a disposition that considers and balances all
possible outcomes to achieve the highest of goods.
I strongly agree with both philosophers in their perspectives on what we should
ultimately strive for in life, happiness and a life that admits no regrets, however I wonder if their
proclamations, or points of view on the methods suggested that we obtain such, would shift to
maybe more realistic and complex ones that fit the modern world. Having said this, I now shall

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say that I have not yet made my choice due to the fact that even though their philosophical
outlook on life is great, I feel like they fail to involucrate certain aspects. Although Husserl
makes a great use of the technique of renewal and critique to an extent, how can one possibly
live a life with no regrets if we are constantly overanalyzing and criticizing every move we
make? In my opinion this fails to involucrate the aspect of fully living in the moment. Factors
such as unexpected occurrences such a family emergency, sacrifices such as high tuition rates
-among many- and most importantly, may also come up along the way within the process of
deciding who one will become. In a perfect world, where one is given the resources,
opportunities and futuristic abilities to magically determine the best choice at each respective
moment, yes, happiness and a life that admits no regrets both seem pretty easy to get to. But the
reality is that none of this is true, at least not for the grand majority of humanity, and that just
because we are self-determining individuals with autonomous reason does not necessarily mean
that we are perfect. I must say, I am not disagreeing in totality with their philosophies, since I
believe that this they are in fact the greatest thing to strive for, but I stand on a mid-ground point
where I dont think that ancient philosophers accurately target the needs of humans in the
modern world with the out looked aspect that maybe, one might not be content along the way to
strive for such end. Maybe if Jean-Paul Sartre had the chance to do so, in a certain way he might
disagree with the existentialism ideology which argues that there can be no objective basis for
our moral resolutions. We must simply chose, and take responsibility for our choices (Jean-Paul
Sartre, 328) which entails that even with the most willing and purest of intentions, there is no
way of really knowing what will be the best outcome of the choices we make, that we are not
always going to get the best results along the way and one must take ultimate responsibility for
whatever he or she achieves later in life.

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References
Merino, G. (2010). Ethics: The Essential Writings. Random House Publishing Group.
Donohoe, J. (2003) Genetic Phenomenology and the Husserlian Account of Ethics. Husserlian
Ethics. 160-175