Michael Oakeshott's Desire For Satisfaction

1029 Words5 Pages
In Work and Play article by Michael Oakeshott, he talks about the human’s desire for satisfaction. He mentioned that “work” and “play” as two excellent and different experiences of the world. Oakeshott describes that to gain that real happiness we need to work for it, even if playing included in the process of accomplishing this happiness as well. He also described work as the energy to utilize and to take advantage of the sources that provided to human beings on Earth. But there is no end to the human satisfaction because our wants are unlimited in life. We tend always to work hard to gain more happiness because when one desire is satisfied, another one takes its place. So, the human mind made that he/she is never completely fulfilled because…show more content…
With this in mind, Oakeshott presents an excellent point in saying that pleasure and happiness cannot be obtained without having the effort to work for it. We need to use our intelligence and abilities to perform our work to the greatest of our understanding and experiences, so we can ensure that the consequences of our action will satisfy our wants and gain us the happiness we need. Therefore, we can show our desires throughout the guidance of our life that is managed by our mind and intelligence instead of what it seems like going on around us. Thinking enough, we are more concentrated on being a giving person instead of getting, because we know that when we give someone something special we tend to obtain the feeling of satisfaction. But the problem is that the wants to mostly become habits in the human life. Therefore, if we satisfied our needs, then a person becomes adapted to it, and it develops into a habit. According to life and psychology, “Self-satisfaction should thus be the sole quest for human beings. Self-satisfaction should, therefore, be the ultimate goal of life.” That is all because our desires are unlimited of achieving what we need/want to reach our…show more content…
"Play,” in short, stands for something that is neither “work” nor “rest.” It is an activity, but not an activity that seeks the satisfaction of wants.” (Oakeshott). He defined the word "play” as an activity that requires cleverness that is not essential to make something out of it. But it’s different than working because playing does not bring disappointment; it only brings happiness. Furthermore, the pursuit of our wants has never been smooth; yet, when we eventually succeed them after overcoming the hard times, we will play that process we went through in our minds to find out where we stand today, but it also makes us happier to work and reach them. Also, having the capability to look back upon to what we did, makes the pursuit more pleasurable than the achievement it. The feeling of success will be more important than merely the fulfillment of those goals. This is because the search for something provides us a reason for living and a sense of hope. Therefore, we feel the fulfillment when we succeed our desires, whether by working or playing because the happiness begins from the

More about Michael Oakeshott's Desire For Satisfaction

Open Document