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."

Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, September 29, 2025

Zest

"One of my friends has a remarkable power to make the people around him happy. There's one personality characteristic of his that I find especially winning: his enthusiasm. He is excited about his work and fascinated by mine. He speaks ebulliently about his family but also about the economy and politics. He has, as the 19th-century philosopher William James put it, "zest [for] the common objects of life."

What the science says

Some people are just naturally more zestful and enthusiastic than others, of course. Indeed, this is related to personality, a large part of which is genetic. In 1949, the psychologist Donald Fiske expanded on that work when he identified five major personality factors. Later research further refined the features of these traits and named them openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Two traits out of these Big Five seem to be especially important for happiness: In 2018, psychologists writing in the Journal of Personality confirmed that high extroversion and low neuroticism seemed to be the recipe for well-being. More specifically, the correlations hinged on one aspect of extroversion and one aspect of neuroticism—enthusiasm and withdrawal, respectively.

Zesty and non-zest, you might say…"

Arthur Brooks

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why Are More Young People Getting Cancer?

Happy people stay fit, eat right, & avoid alcohol "…the evidence linking obesity, alcohol use and poor diet to early-onset cancer i...