Achieving happiness

"Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill famously debated this very issue. Bentham wrote that it is better to be a happy pig than a miserable human being, to which Mill rejoined that it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. Michel de Montaigne agreed with Bentham when he wrote that too much learning only produces idle fantasies. So, the question is: does philosophic knowledge bring happiness? This book assumes that it does and gives the reasons philosophers think why. ​Unhappiness is counterproductive, useless and painful. William James once wrote that the attitude of unhappiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly. What can be more base and unworthy than the pining, puling, mumping mood, what is more injurious to others and less helpful as a way out of difficulty? Unhappiness only fastens and perpetuates the trouble that occasioned it and increases the total evil of the situation. This book assumes man can avoid the mean, ugly and puling state of unhappiness. ​Readers could reasonably ask why philosophers have any advice to give on how to be happy. They could rightfully point out that philosophers are notoriously humorless, grave, intellectually unfeeling and sometimes suicidal. But, throughout history, happiness has been an enduring interest of theirs. They have pondered it and have developed many worthy ideas. Indeed, Seneca wrote that philosophers’ writings can bring happiness and not just far-fetched and archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors. Indeed, the ancient philosophies of Platonism, stoicism, Epicureanism and skepticism dealt extensively with happiness. Even this author’s honored major professor in graduate school at Oregon State University, Bill Uzgalis, told his students that they must have some humor in their papers to get a good grade. Philosophers are only thinking people seeking ways to happiness. At a minimum, they ought to at least explain how to avoid unhappiness. ​In spite of their purported ilk, many philosophers assert that humans are born for happiness. A few like Sigmund Freud believe humans are incapable of happiness, and some, like Samuel Johnson, believe man can achieve only brief interludes of happiness that make endurable his otherwise painful life. But many philosophers believe man was made to be happy. The ancient Roman Stoic Epictetus wrote that men should be happy—God made him that way, life is to be happy—free from hindrance and restraint, and if one is unhappy it is his fault because God made man to be happy and enjoy peace of mind and furnished him with the resources to achieve this. John Locke believed that people extend themselves from present existence only through consciousness, all which is founded in a concern for happiness. This happiness, according to Locke, is the unavoidable concomitant of consciousness. ​The philosophers’ idea of happiness comes in many forms. They, and in particular Hegel believed happiness comes from freedom. Cicero wrote that philosophy consists in the collection of rational arguments that that can lead to a good and happy life. For Cicero, happiness also comes from lack of fear, worry and covetousness. Epictetus believed attending to daily activities does not bring happiness such as those who attend to their farms and do not ask what the world is. Seneca, in response believed philosophy strips the mind of empty thinking about farms and focuses on happiness. For George Santayana, heaven or happiness is to be at peace with the world. ​One famous philosopher/psychologist Sigmund Freud in Civilization and its Discontents believed humans are constitutionally unable to avoid suffering and achieve true happiness. He depressingly wrote that humans are faced with the powerful exigencies of nature, feeble bodies and the inability to adjust to relationships with others, states, and societies and thus are doomed to live unhappy lives. Freud believed men are consigned to suffering by nature, which is epitomized by what happens to their bodies—they naturally decay and die. Further, constructs of families, states and civilizations are built on the renunciation of human instincts. These artificial constructs limit freedom, impart responsibilities and repress man’s aggressive nature. For Freud, human lives are essentially one of toil, discouragement, disappointment, pain, angst and struggle interspersed with occasional bouts of pleasure. ​Freud believed that humans try to overcome these sources of unhappiness in a variety of ways, none of which work. Some seek chemical intoxication with alcohol or drugs, but this only numbs the pain. Some try to kill their instincts such as in some Eastern religions, but this only brings quietness. The artists try to sublimate some instincts and heighten others like their intellectual capacity, but the benefits are only mild and of use to a few. Creative people endeavor to create illusions to escape reality, but they achieve nothing because reality is too strong. Some like hermits seek to cut off all contact with the world, but this achieves nothing. The passionate seek to enhance the sources of happiness, but passion thwarted only brings unhappiness. The final solution is a flight into neurotic illness, which only brings derangement. ​Freud has some powerful arguments why humans cannot be happy, but most philosophers disagree. Epictetus wrote that man can suffer and still be happy. He may be hounded by innumerable demons, but his mind, what he knows and effort can still make him happy. Happiness is not a mirage that always appears elsewhere and evaporates when approached only to reappear in the distance. This book is about how philosophy can turn that mirage into real happiness. ​So what is happiness? What is its definition? Happiness is an unusually subjective term that means different things to different people. Some think it is an active state of mind, while others consider it a byproduct. Some believe happiness is derived from beliefs people hold, such as a person of faith, and others from physical pleasure, such as a sensualist. The words used to describe it are similarly disparate. It is commonly described as pleasure, tranquility, felicity equanimity or simply an undisturbed state of mind. It is also frequently defined in a negative sense such as freedom from anxiety, pain, ennui, agitation or troubles. Most agree that happiness is an attitude or some kind of mental state free from anxiety. ​In classical times, the Platonists described it as a harmony of the soul that is free from internal strife. The Aristotelians called it eudemonia, or happiness obtained from achieving one’s potential for a fully rational life. The Cyrenaic Hedonists and Epicureans described it as the presence of pleasure and absence of pain, and the Skeptics thought happiness was a trouble free mind that comes from the suspension of belief. ​The Stoics’ definition of happiness can be found in the distinction between two ancient Greek words: ataraxia and apatheia. Ataraxia is a word for happiness that means tranquility or imperturbability of mind and body. Apatheia means not suffering in Greek and was used by the Stoics to mean indifference to pleasure and pain, a state of tranquility, or peace of mind and body resulting from emotional detachment from the everyday world. ​This book uses the Stoic definition of happiness, which is defined as tranquility, peace, contentment, calmness of mind, peace of mind and well-being. It is the state of not being disturbed, troubled, worried or driven by insatiable desires. This definition of happiness, in part, derives from two of Cicero’s minimum essentials for a happy life described in his Tusculan Disputations. These conditions are to learn not to be a prey to anxiety and to acquire the ability to control the sensations of excessive joy, fear and desire. This Stoic interpretation of happiness entails the virtues of endurance, courage, self-control and justice because to be happy for the Stoics requires humans to adjust themselves to the world and not demand the world adjust to them. ​The word felicity is often used in this book in place of happiness. Felicity is a refined definition of happiness and thus often more fitting. It means satisfaction, a general state of happiness, ease, contentment or pleasure with no pain. Perhaps the essential definition of felicity comes from John Stuart Mill, when he described happiness simply as the presence of pleasure and absence of pain. This is the way most philosophers have defined it. ​Certainly, some can achieve happiness easier than others due to external circumstances. Having food, shelter, health, love, a successful career, money and respect give some advantage. Also, different circumstances present different challenges to happiness. The old, young, educated, uneducated, man, woman, rich and poor all typically have different ideas of and obstacles to happiness. The old face health issues and the young and poor money issues that can detract from felicity. This said, most philosophers believe happiness is available to everyone. ​However, for the philosophers, achieving felicity requires effort. The Anna Karenina principle reveals that there are more ways things can go wrong than right. Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas wrote that human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little enjoyed. Happiness is not given to man; he must earn it. Epictetus wrote that, like virtue, humans are born for the good but not with it—it only come with practice. To reinterpret Epictetus, people are born for happiness but not with it—it only comes with practice. Cicero in Tusculan Disputations wrote that the happy life rests upon the individual alone, and one proverb says that everyone is responsible for their own happiness. Happiness is not inherited, and it is a mistake to wait for it to come—an individual must achieve it. So, happiness is a kind of art that must be studied and practiced to be realized. Achieving happiness is not easy, but then smooth seas never made a good sailor."

"Philosophy and Happiness: How philosophy can bring felicity" by John Bowman: https://a.co/61ZaaPU