Philosophers have long since debated how one can achieve true and pure happiness. There is not just one answer to being happy, there are many things that affect one’s ability to be happy. Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Plato make what many feel to be valid arguments on how we might achieve living a happy life. Plato says we need to essentially remove ourselves from the world and focus on the intellectual side. Some might argue that this can tie into the view of Christianity. Christianity helps us know what it is we can do, as well as what it is we should not do, in order to gain happiness. On the opposing side of that though, philosophers like Kant and Nietzsche argue that it is up to the individual to achieve happiness. Reason and virtue are what lead us to gain knowledge and it is knowledge which will then helps us be truly happy. Even though Kant and Nietzsche do not completely see eye to eye, it is apparent that one thing they do agree on is that you cannot count on other people to achieve your own happiness.
Kant’s
“Sapere aude! ‘Have courage to use your own reason!’- that is the motto of enlightenment.” Reason helps us become virtuous and having virtue leads to us living a happy life. Many times, Kant stresses the fact that laziness and fear have made individuals allow others to rule over them. People no longer make decisions for themselves, they are completely reliant on others to tell them how to live. He summarizes this by saying, “If I have a book,
The film The Pursuit of Happyness is a biography based on the life of Chris Gardner, who is played by the actor Will Smith. Will Smith portrays a hardworking father who is struggling to sale bone-density scanners to the local hospitals, while trying to make ends meet for his family. After his wife leaves, he is left to raise his 5-year-old son Christopher alone. Making it clear to those around him, it is obvious that he is among the working poor class and cannot meet the basic human needs (absolute), he can barely pay bills to keep his home, can hardly provide food, and has a rough time being able to keep his son in daycare. Being a part of the working poor class means that you have little power, income and prestige. There were many sociological
Lazy fall days, colorful leaves, cooler weather, birds singing, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, relaxing to the sounds of the outdoors. Waves of water crashing upon each other, fishing, telling stories around a campfire, making s’mores, memories with family and friends; this is what happiness is to me. Happiness is in the eye of the beholder, what brings happiness to one person may not bring happiness to another person. When I think of the word happiness, I think of descriptive words like Contentment, enjoyment, satisfaction, delightfulness, something that makes a person smile. I have always looked at the word happiness as a feeling, an action, never have I thought of happiness as an overall affect. However, it is a proven fact, that happiness can affect the over-all health and longevity of human life. Happy people live longer than those that are lonely, stressed, or depressed.
“The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt is the first book I've read of its kind, mostly because I've been trying to feel my way through life so far one step at a time, and I will likely never forget it. There are things to be learned within this combination of ancient wisdom, research, and Haidt's connection of it all, valuable lessons for approaching and understanding the human experience. Reading something like this young, and taking it with me throughout my life and comparing it to my own experience will indeed make it a very valuable tool.
Based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi “Happiness Revisited” People have many different points of view about how to achieve happiness, it can be based on the type of life one is having, an experience, a way of living, culture, and religion. Happiness can be defined in many ways but happiness is not something we find or get just by magic. In “Happiness Revisited” by Csikszentmihalyi, the author emphasizes that “It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly.” And just as he stays that happiness is when someone is involved in everything that happens in live either good or bad, one example that I think Csikszentmihalyi will describe as an optimal experience
In The Happiness Hypothesis Jonathan Haidt talks about how our brains work and how best to find happiness with the different ways it works. Haidt describes the different ways a positive and negative person’s brain works and how each can find happiness through various and different methods. He also discusses different aspects of society that can affect our level of happiness. All of these things can be considered to find the best way to raise your level of happiness.
The story of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabriele Muccino portrays a family who struggles with finding enough money to pay taxes and afford living expenses. The movie takes a place in San Francisco during the 80s. The two main characters are the father Chris Gardner and his son Christopher, Will Smith and Jaden Smith respectively. Gardner tries to support his family. But every time he attempts to make things better, they always end up worse. Gardner in the story wonders on "how to be happy?" He earns his money by selling the bone density
Throughout history humankind has been trying to define happiness. What is it exactly and how do we obtain it? We always think that happiness is a place to be or a destination and technically, that is the main premise or goal of our lives; to obtain happiness. So our whole lives go by from the minute were born to the last breath we take in a quest to work hard in order to reach that destination. Naturally, many philosophical writers have jumped on the bandwagon and put in their two cents of their views on the matter of happiness. Alexander Pope talks about the relationship and purpose man has to the universe in An Essay on Man, Voltaire wrote about living in blind optimism with a false notion of happiness in Candide, and Samuel
When first asked, I believed that happiness was simply fulfilling a desire, but through topics discussed in class, I now realize that there is so much more to happiness. The road to happiness includes using virtues to receive gifts from God and from others. From the Beatitudes, we can learn to use what Jesus has taught us, to gain happiness in our everyday lives. We are taught that when we believe in God, mourn, be gentle, seek righteousness, show mercy,
The Science of Happiness is the study of emotions and their cause. Though it mainly studies happiness, other feelings are researched too. Over thousands of years, this topic has evolved and grown, helping us to learn how emotions and feelings affect daily life all over the world. The Science of Happiness is the advanced research on happiness and its causes, effects, and purpose in human life.
One of the principal ideas of the Enlightenment is the value of reason. The value of reason is the ability for individuals to be able to think for themselves. This is shown through Martin Luther and his 95 theses where he challenged the ideas from the church. This was one of the startling moments in thinking for oneself in the Enlightenment era. According to Immanuel Kant, “Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! ‘Have courage to use your own reason!’ That is the motto of the enlightenment”
There are people who are concern about happiness, they spent a lot of their time doing research and doing survey to get an exact number of how happy people are all over the world. Tal Ben-Shahar the author of “Happier” and Sanjo Lyubomirsky the author of “The How of Happiness” are two of the many authors who are concern about happiness and positive psychology. Base on their research about happiness they came out with a list of rituals, that if you follow them they insure you that you will live a happy life. Sue Halpen the author of “Are We Happy?” it doesn’t support the way researchers are measure how happy people are all over the world. The Happiness of the people of all over the world is something that couldn’t be measure; happiness is something unstable that came be change in seconds depending in the circumstances. It doesn’t matter if you behave in a specific way there are some circumstances that can make that unworkable.
Despite the constant yearning for it, people all over the world never seem to agree on what happiness is or what it actually means. The ancient philosopher Boethius struggles with the question as he consults Philosophy in his dark prison. In his book, The Consolation of Philosophy, he comes to the conclusion that “…true and perfect happiness is that which makes a man self-sufficient, strong, worthy of respect, glorious, and joyful” (III. ix. 65). Talking through Philosophy, Boethius explains the place where happiness is present; in the eternal God who is the source of all happiness (III. x. 69). Philosophy additionally reasons that fame, positon, power, wealth and pleasure, all external children of Fortune, can never bring real happiness (III. ix. 64-65). After establishing the general nature of happiness, the search for the possession of this happy state can commence.
The everlasting question of "What is Happiness?" has been inquired since the creation of men. Unfortunately, the only agreed answer that humanity came up with is that all the creatures seek happiness, but no one has the concrete directions for achieving it. Our libraries are overwhelmed with books about happiness, but no dictionary definition explains which path men must take to be happy. No mathematician gave us the axiom which we could use to solve the problem of living in bliss. No scientist brought up the formula of fusing certain ingredients to produce the "drink of happiness". Still almost all the people consider that their ultimate purport in
The beautiful smile. The joyous laugh. The smiling eyes. The high pitched voice. All describe the characteristics of one being happy. Benjamin Franklin once stated “money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.”. In turn that quote has been a center of debates for centuries. Conversing over the debatable topic in which happiness does or does not extend from money. In a society such as the twentieth century, happiness is evidently reflected by wealth. Therefore, happiness is influenced by the amount of wealth that corresponds to the way one uses their money.
When you hear the word happiness, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you think of material possessions like designer clothes and accessories, the newest iPhone with the highest possible storage capacity, or a shiny red supercar? Do you think the amount of money you have or your current financial status has an effect on how happy you are? Plenty of college students, myself included, would associate happiness with possessing items like these or just having a lot of money in general. In today’s society, one common belief about social class is that the richer and more money or things that one has, the happier this will make them. This belief is reinforced by countless advertisements we see and hear everywhere, whether that be on