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Happiness
Happiness, is a condition which humans can have. (As Aristotle pointed
out in his works on Ethics, it would be incorrect to call happiness a
state, as happy humans are in motion.) The definition of happiness is
one of the greatest philosophical topics, at least since the time of Socrates,
and is especially central to Ethics, being the starting point of Aristotle's
ethical works. Some people might define it as the best condition which
a human can have - a condition of mental and physical health. Others may
define it as freedom from want and distress; consciousness of the good
order of things; assurance of one's place in the universe or society,
inner peace, and so forth.
Happiness is associated with pleasures, or even equated to pleasure by
some people. Other associated emotions include joy, exultation, delight,
bliss, and love. Feelings felt to be opposed to happiness are suffering,
sadness, grief, and pain.
But the term pleasure (like its opposite pain) is normally used to specifically
indicate specific temporary physical sensations, while happiness is nornally
used to refer specifically to a long-term wellness and consciousness of
that wellness (even if pleasure is a common aspect of it). Furthermore,
many people would insist that happiness is a word concerning something
specifically human, because happiness implies consciousness.
In Aristotle's Ethical works, the word normally translated as happiness
is eudaimonia or eudaemonia in Greek. The original meaning is perhaps
something like "well inspired" or "good spirited"
(eu means well/good, and the second component is related to daimon or
daemon). He took it for granted that it was in contrast to short term
pleasure and cited a popular saying of his time to the effect that whether
one has been happy or not can only be stated at the end of your life.
He seemed to mean something else than happiness when he used the word
makarios, sometimes translated as "blessedness".
Philosophical views
1. Utilitarianism commonly seeks the greatest happiness for the greatest
number.
2. Epicureanism is the belief that the greatest good is to seek happiness
for oneself.
3. Hedonism is any ethical theory that gives pleasure a central role.
4. Eudaimonism is any ethical theory that gives happiness a central
role.
Psychological views
Positive psychology
Martin Seligman in his book Authentic Happiness gives the positive psychology
definition of happiness as consisting of both positive emotions (like
comfort) and positive activities (like absorption). He presents three
categories of positive emotions:
1. past: feelings of satisfaction, contentment, pride, and serenity.
2. present (examples): enjoying the taste of food, glee at listening
to music, absorption in reading.
3. future: feelings of optimism, hope, trust, faith, and confidence.
There are three categories of present positive emotions:
1. bodily pleasures, e.g. enjoying the taste of food.
2. higher pleasures, e.g. glee at listening to music.
3. gratifications, e.g. absorption in reading.
The bodily and higher pleasures are "pleasures of the moment"
and usually involve some external stimulus. An exception is the glee felt
at having an original thought.
Gratifications involve full engagement, flow, elimination of self-consciousness,
and blocking of felt emotions. But when a gratification comes to an end
then positive emotions will be felt.
Gratifications can be obtained or increased by developing signature strengths
and virtues. Authenticity is the derivation of gratification and positive
emotions from exercising signature strengths. The good life comes from
using signature strengths to obtain abundant gratification in, for example,
enjoying work and pursuing a meaningful life.
Mechanistic view
Biological basis
While a person's overall happiness is not objectively measurable this
does not mean it does not have a real physical component. The neurotransmitter
dopamine, operating along the mesolimbic pathway and upon the nucleus
accumbens, is involved in desire and seems related to pleasure. Pleasure
can be induced artificially with drugs, most directly with opiates such
as morphine and heroin, which block dopamine inhibitors.
Nevertheless, the exact chemicals and processes which correlate with
happiness do not define the concept of happiness, they simply describe
its biological "implementation". We might speculate that other
implementations are possible, even if they have yet to be observed.
It is possible, however, to describe possible functions of happiness
in biological terms. One such attempt is referred to as Darwinian happiness.
Darwinian happiness is based on the fact that animals are equipped with
the propensity for both positive and negative feelings and sensations.
By understanding the underlying evolutionary background for how these
sensations arise, one may gain insight in how to ensure that the neurological
processes that add to a positive mood will tend to dominate.
Difficulties in defining internal experiences
It is probably impossible to objectively define happiness as we know and
understand it, as internal experiences are subjective by nature. It is
almost as pointless as trying to define the color green such that a completely
color blind person could understand the experience of seeing green. While
we can not objectively express the difference between greenness and redness,
we can certainly explain which physical phenomena cause green to be observed,
and can explain the capacities of the human visual system to distinguish
between light of different wavelengths, and so on. Likewise, in the following
sections, we will not attempt to describe the internal sensation of happiness,
but will instead concentrate on defining its logical basis. Importantly,
we will try to avoid circular definitions -- for instance, defining happiness
as "a good feeling", while "good" is defined as being
"something which causes happiness".
In non-human animals
For non-human animals, happiness might be best described as the process
of reinforcement, as part of the organism's motivational system. The organism
has achieved one or more of its goals (pursuit of food, water, sex, shelter,
etc.), and its brain is in the process of teaching itself to repeat the
sort of actions that led to success. By reinforcing successful decision
paths, it produces an equilibrium state not unlike positive-to-negative
magnets. The specific goals are typically things that enable the organism
to survive and reproduce.
By this definition, only animals with some capacity to learn should be
able to experience happiness. However, at its most basic level the learning
might be extremely simple and short term, such as the nearly reflexive
feedback loop of scratching an itch (followed by pleasure, followed by
scratching more, and so on) which can occur with almost no conscious thought.
In humans
When speaking of animals with the ability to reason (generally considered
the exclusive domain of humans), goals are no longer limited to short
term satisfaction of basic drives. Nevertheless, there remains a strong
relationship of happiness to goal fulfillment and the brain's reinforcement
mechanism, even if the goals themselves may be more complex and/or cerebral,
longer term, and less selfish than a lower animal's goals might be.
Philosophers observe that short-term gratification, while briefly generating
happiness, often requires a trade-off with negative repercussions in the
long run. Examples of this could be said to include developing technology
and equipment that makes life easier but over time ends up harming the
environment, causing illness or wasting financial or other resources.
Various branches of philosophy, as well as some religious movements, suggest
that "true" happiness only exists if it has no long-term detrimental
effects. Utilitarianism is a theory of ethics based on quantitative maximization
of happiness.
From the observation that fish must become happy by swimming, and birds
must become happy by flying, Aristotle points to the unique abilities
of man as the route to happiness. "Of all the animals only man can
sit and contemplate reality. Of all the animals only man can develop social
relations to the political level. Thus the contemplative life of a monk
or professor, or the political life of a military commander or politician
will be the happiest."
In Artificial Intelligence
The view that happiness is a reinforcement state can apply to some non-biological
systems as well, such as a program or robot could be said to be "happy"
when it is in a state of reinforcing previous actions that led to satisfaction
of its programmed goals. For instance, imagine a search engine that has
the capacity to gradually improve the quality of its search results by
accepting and processing feedback from the user regarding the relevance
of those results. If the user responds that a search result is good (i.e.
provides positive feedback), this tells the software to reinforce (by
adjusting variables or "weights") the decision path that led
to those results. In a sense, this could be said to "reward"
the search engine. However, even if the program is made to act like it
is happy, there is little doubt that the search engine has no subjective
sense of being happy. Current computing technology merely implements abstract
mathematical programs which lack the causal and creative power of natural
systems. This does not preclude the possiblity that future technologies
may begin to blur the distinction between such machine happiness and that
experienced by an animal or human.
Behaviors and emotions associated with happiness
The following behaviors and emotions are commonly associated with happiness:
Material:
1. money and business, prosperity
2. food
3. massage
4. using certain psychiatric or recreational drugs
5. refuge - taking from the material things in life, getting back to nature.
Social:
1. freedom
2. peace
3. nonviolence
4. closure
5. shopping
6. friendships (also penpals)
7. dating
8. flirting
9. gifts
10. greeting cards and postcards
11. family and parents
12. lifestyles and alternative lifestyles
13. music
Emotional:
1. kissing
2. sexuality
3. love
4. romantic relationships and romance
5. compassion
6. pets and animals
Spiritual:
1. Tantra
2. religion
3. philosophy, Epicurus, Epicureanism
4. spirituality
5. meditation and yoga
6. enlightenment
Other:
1. sleeping
2. drinking, alcohol
3. hobbies
4. decoration
5. sports
6. science
7. books
8. work
9. cinema
10. expanding knowledge, reading and learning new things
11. Epicurus taught that although it is good to satisfy our natural desires
for food and drink, pleasures often conceal painful consequences.
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