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What Makes People Happy

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The Good Life The question of what makes people happy has been an ongoing argument for years. Happiness according to dictionary.com can be defined as the quality or state of being happy. There are two perspectives that focus on answering this question of self-happiness, the hedonic and eudaimonic. The Hedonic view (Subjective well-being) is the perspective of how people experience the quality of their lives. Hedonism is about knowing the fulfillment of pleasure. This type of pleasure is physical pleasure, which focuses on the feeling of happiness, satisfaction and enjoyment. Hedonism is often something that is done for the moment and is short-term, and it is thought that an increase in pleasure there will be a decrease in pain. Things such as drinking, eating, and sex would be examples of this because they are all short-term actions that give us pleasure. I agree with the Greek philosopher Aristippus viewpoint that “the goal of life is to experience the maximum amount of pleasure.” (Aristippus) However I don’t not agree with the notion of Hedonic view as a whole. Living life in short-term burst of pleasure is not the ideal life I would like. I believe you should do things that will bring you long-term happiness and not just short-term. Also if you live your life in short burst of happiness you will have some positive effects and some negative effects. The positives being you got happiness and pleasure for the moment and the negative being that you are no longer

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