that has me wondering what is happiness? we know what it is chemically, and we know that we can create it with love, and that we feel happier by the sea or in the mountains. we know that we seek happiness by shopping or eating or drinking .... and that happiness is temporary, transient, fleeting ...
so if our duty is to create the greatest happiness for the greatest number as some philosophers suggest, then what is it we are creating?
No answer to this question comes immediately to mind! My reaction though is to think about human rights, the fact that everything that has been determined to be necessary for a person to live a life of dignity is also required for them to be happy, e.g. health (or perhaps the best possible health?), the opportunity to educate oneself, to procreate, to establish some form of enterprise and so on. So, does that mean that a state of dignity is required for happiness to occur? If so, I do not think that it is all that is required - one can be very unhappy while retaining a state of dignity. But perhaps happiness cannot occur without dignity as a foundation - the agar to the germ of happiness you could say. This could also, perhaps, be called a state of integrity. Everything in ones life whole and complete and operating as intended. My own experience is that I only feel truly happy when everything is as it 'should' be in my family life, my work life, my social life and in my body and I would call that having a state of integrity in my life. From there, the feeling arises when I have down time after challenging myself in a safe environment, or when I have contributed to a stimulating conversation (in the broadest sense) or event with friends, family or colleagues, in which all parties were satisfied, or (excuse me if this is at all inappropriate) after having good sex with someone I really like.
ReplyDeleteSo these for me are the circumstances under which happiness occurs, but still, what is it! Perhaps it can simply be defined as the feeling eventuating from the rush of endorphins that occurs when the above states occur simultaneously.
If this argument is acceptable, then perhaps what we are creating, when we say that we are creating happiness for the greatest number of people, is a world in which human rights are upheld and in which people are fully expressing themselves in a positive way in their communities.