What is Happiness? A Journey Through Time
Is happiness the end of the other ends one seeks? Is it a goal in itself or is it an automatic by-product of living a life with the values one holds close to one’s heart? What do you mean when you say I am happy? In this series of articles, we will try and capture how happiness comes from purpose and meaning and a life that is rich and full.
However there are many interpretations of the term happiness. Are you talking about your well-being, how your life is generally going like feeling content and satisfied with your personal or professional life or are you talking about your personality, a trait like being an enthusiastic bubbly person who comes across as happy. You may be referring to an emotional state right here, right now, like being calm or anxious, sad or happy. You may be referring to a physical sensation that brings you pleasure like being out in nature with a fresh breeze and the Sun on your skin. According to Noble prize winning author Daniel Kahneman, these are the four conceptual domain of happiness; wellbeing, traits, emotions and sensations.
The three most common western theories of happiness are:
- Hedonism derived from the Greek hedone (“pleasure”), the goal of a good life is to crowd as much enjoyment as possible into each moment.
- Desire satisfaction theory states that a persons well-being is the overall level of desire-satisfaction in their life as a whole. The more you get what you want the better your life is, and when you don’t then your life goes badly because your desires are frustrated.
- Objective list theory holds that a range of basic objective goods like loving relationships, meaningful knowledge, autonomy, achievement, and pleasure directly benefit people. There is no shared feature amidst these and they benefit the person irrespective of the attitude the person has towards them (Rice 2013).
Seligman (2002) synthesizes the three theories into Authentic Happiness: the Pleasant Life (pleasures), the Good Life (engagement), and the Meaningful Life. The first two are subjective, but the third is at least partly objective and lodges in belonging to and serving what is larger and more worthwhile than the just the self’s pleasures and desires. The Pleasant Life is about happiness in Hedonism’s sense. The Good Life is about happiness in Desire’s sense, and the Meaningful Life is about happiness in Objective List’s sense. A life that satisfies all three criteria of happiness is classed as the “Full Life,”.
Principles of the meaningful life can be traced back to to Confucius (Kongzi 孔子, 551–479 BCE) and Mencius (Mengzi 孟子, 371–289 BCE). Happiness consists primarily not in pleasure, but in ethical pleasure; the good life is not a life in which all or most of one’s desires are fulfilled, but a life in which the satisfaction of prudential desires is subject to the constraint of ethical desire (Luo 2019). Confucius from his analects writes about this concept of JEN, conveying one’s sense of reverence or humanity towards others. A person of jen or humanity who finds happiness and brings it to others, brings good of others to completion and does not bring the bad in others to completion. In other words happiness may be achieved through acts that support the welfare of others.
In Buddhism this a line of thinking that traces back 2500 years. His Holiness, The Dalai Lama writes: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion”. Compassion as a path to happiness chimes with the concept of karuna, being kind and concerned about the wellbeing and welfare of others. Achieving Nirvana, a state of detachment from the worldly desires and needs is put forward as the route to happiness and peace.
Taoism, another Eastern philosophy going back 2500 years offers beautiful insights. Most come from Lao Tzu, the great Chinese philosopher, and his influential book, Tao Te Ching. He states that happiness is often paradoxical. The meaning of life may not be necessarily grasped by your rational mind, you have to experience it, let it unfold. The video outlines the suggested approach in Taoisim to 1. Resources, 2. Relationships, 3. Self-development, and 4. Self-maintenance on the path to happiness.
At a similar time Greeks were really interested in how happiness is realized at the end of life when summing up the things that one has given to the world and kind of the balance of virtuous acts that one may have engaged in while alive. Aristotle shares an important principle of Moderation or what he described as the golden mean, mid point between the vice of excess of a quality and deficiency of a quality. He reasons that all emotions and passions have to be accepted, they all have their place and function when cultivated in the right way. Aristotle writes when articulating his Principle of Moderation, anyone can become angry. But to be angry at the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose and the right way that’s not within everybody’s power and that’s not easy and that is really the appropriate fashion that when our passions are cultivated in the right context, they bring us happiness and the good life. And even passions like anger when, for example, engaged in societal injustice can bring about a lot of good and happiness. Aristotle is suggesting moderation and acceptance of our emotions and passions as a pathway to happiness, he describes this as virtue.
Aristotle describes Eudaimonia, a word which does not have a simple English translation, perhaps the closest will be a life well lived and a human being flourishing. This he claims comes when one is the best version of themselves they can be. It is a life of striving that comes from pushing oneself to the limits. Happiness comes from achieving something really difficult, rather than just having it handed out. It does mean that improvement is a life long journey and once you reach a goal, you set new goals and new horizons to reach and many of those goals one would fail to reach. However, there is the pleasure that one gets from having achieved a lot during the day, through hard work, grit and determination and earning their good night sleep. This is morality for Aristotle, honing your strengths while working on your weaknesses, striking the golden mean with the different emotions.
Other spiritual / religions like Hinduism have similar philosophies of life like karma. Good deeds bring forth happiness in one’s life and vice versa with bad deeds.
Many of these ideas are as relevant today, as they were 2500 years back. We at PROGRESS Guide are of the opinion that happiness comes from living a life that is meaningful to the person. What matters to you is individual to you and the pursuit of anything meaningful is bound to come with it’s ups and downs, successes and failures, with pain and joy. This applies to all of life, whether that be love, work, leisure, self-growth, learning, etc. Happiness cannot exist without the effort that goes into the pursuit of something meaningful and if it comes without effort or with any failures that cause pain and suffering, how meaningful is it to you.
References
Luo, S. Happiness and the Good Life: A Classical Confucian Perspective. Dao 18, 41–58 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11712-018-9640-8
Rice, C.M. (2013), Defending the Objective List Theory of Well-Being. Ratio, 26: 196-211. https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12007
Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press.
