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The Pursuit of Happiness
Jul. 27th, 2022 03:48 pmI have been giving some thought to the pursuit of happiness in recent days, that very famous line from the United States Declaration of Independence (and a rather overlooked and brilliant analysis by Hannah Arendt), and it was an item of discussion over dinner last night with Nitul D and, in a different form, with my dear old friend Lauren R over lunch today. It is a matter of fact that people say they seek what makes them happy in life, but find themselves stuck on a hedonic treadmill and actually find themselves empty and unhappy as a result. The problem is that hedonism, engaging in pleasurable activities, is an ineffective path to lasting happiness. By hedonism, one can mean everything from various versions of sportsball, games, the purchase of possessions, and other similar distractions. It must be emphasised that there is nothing wrong with engaging in such light pleasures in small levels; I like to break up the day for a few minutes pretending I'm a little mouse that drives a hovercraft. These, and other activities, can all provide a little dopamine hit.
But a much stronger and more effective path to happiness is by seeking eudaimonia, the virtuous pursuit of meaningful challenges for the good of the individual and society. There is no doubt that this is a harder path, and one that will bring some discomfort, even to the extent that Marcuse considered that "unhappy nonconformists" were the driving force to greater meaning and freedom and Fromm remarked; "One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often". Or, as my Facebook friend, Robert Baker said a couple of months ago: "anxiety and depression are inevitable symptoms of awareness and care". Eudaimonia doesn't seem like much fun, does it? And in many ways, it isn't. But what brings greater and longer happiness? A trivial and amusing purchase or the personal achievement of a meaningful task? The research is quite clear; it is eudaimonic activities that predict future well-being.
Eudaimonic activities are firmly in the camp of the Socratic triad of Truth, Justice, and Beauty, which is a foundation to contemporary pragmatic philosophy. But they do exist in a continuum with the hedonic; over the weekend Erica H and I spent several hours catching up on episodes of The Blacklist, which is perhaps not great art but certainly a cut higher than switching one's brain off. On Monday night I played a session of the Burning Wheel RPG set in the Thirty Years' War, arguably the most bloody religious conflict in history; is this just fun or is there more than a touch of historical research in the guise of an amateur radio play? As the dialectic and the Dao, both say; you set something up as binary opposites, and you've set up a continuum where there is a little bit of each in the other; that is why happiness, meaning, success, and enjoyment is a pursuit.
But a much stronger and more effective path to happiness is by seeking eudaimonia, the virtuous pursuit of meaningful challenges for the good of the individual and society. There is no doubt that this is a harder path, and one that will bring some discomfort, even to the extent that Marcuse considered that "unhappy nonconformists" were the driving force to greater meaning and freedom and Fromm remarked; "One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often". Or, as my Facebook friend, Robert Baker said a couple of months ago: "anxiety and depression are inevitable symptoms of awareness and care". Eudaimonia doesn't seem like much fun, does it? And in many ways, it isn't. But what brings greater and longer happiness? A trivial and amusing purchase or the personal achievement of a meaningful task? The research is quite clear; it is eudaimonic activities that predict future well-being.
Eudaimonic activities are firmly in the camp of the Socratic triad of Truth, Justice, and Beauty, which is a foundation to contemporary pragmatic philosophy. But they do exist in a continuum with the hedonic; over the weekend Erica H and I spent several hours catching up on episodes of The Blacklist, which is perhaps not great art but certainly a cut higher than switching one's brain off. On Monday night I played a session of the Burning Wheel RPG set in the Thirty Years' War, arguably the most bloody religious conflict in history; is this just fun or is there more than a touch of historical research in the guise of an amateur radio play? As the dialectic and the Dao, both say; you set something up as binary opposites, and you've set up a continuum where there is a little bit of each in the other; that is why happiness, meaning, success, and enjoyment is a pursuit.
