PHIL 3160 – Philosophy of Happiness

What is it, how can we best pursue it, why should we? Supporting the study of these and related questions at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond. "Examining the concept of human happiness and its application in everyday living as discussed since antiquity by philosophers, psychologists, writers, spiritual leaders, and contributors to pop culture."

Saturday, December 21, 2024

You don’t need a pill: Neo

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness
True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. — Keanu Reeves

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Burkeman’s non-pursuit

"Sometimes it is the very pursuit of happiness that stops us from achieving it"

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/negative-thinking-oliver-burkeman/

Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.

—Viktor Frankl

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

English heritage

That ubiquitous internet attribution to Ben Franklin of the line that beer is proof that God loves us is surely apocryphal.

"His (London) colleagues nicknamed him the Water-American because he refused to partake in the ubiquitous beer drinking: a pint before breakfast, with breakfast, after breakfast, with the midday meal, at six, and a last one before bed. (Franklin preferred Madeira.) Franklin also prided himself on healthy habits…"

— The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss

Ephemeral joy

"Man craves happiness here on earth, not fulfillment, not emancipation. Are they utterly deluded, then, in seeking happiness? No, happiness is desirable, but it is a by-product, the result of a way of life, not a goal which is forever beyond one's grasp. Happiness is achieved en route. And if it be ephemeral, as most men believe, it can also give way, not to anxiety or despair, but to a joyousness which is…

—Henry Miller

https://www.threads.net/@philosophybits/post/DDX14Liz4T2?xmt=AQGzmpwTN6S84f0xNNjbz03inLNd5JdR-NbuWHs3DJhqpw

Monday, December 9, 2024

What is happiness?

"And where can you find it, if you ever can? We all know that its pursuit is guaranteed, right there in the Declaration of Independence—sort of improbably; I don't think many political charters include such a lighthearted instruction, the phrase "the pursuit of happiness" suggesting picnics and fireworks and flirtation more than it suggests the stern work of revolution…"

— All That Happiness Is: Some Words on What Matters by Adam Gopnik
https://a.co/g3BdXcb

You don’t need a pill: Neo

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependen...