Best Happy

Tag: philosophy

  • The Problem with Hedonism

    The Problem with Hedonism

    Prof. Martin Seligman and his students at UPen were discussing whether happiness comes from practicing kindness or having “fun”. An assignment was decided to be done before the next class – each one would engage in one pleasurable activity and one activity of philanthropy, and write detailed reports about both. The findings were life-changing for the students – they found that the pleasure of engaging in fun activities, like hanging out with friends, watching a movie or eating ice cream paled in comparison to the feelings that they experienced after performing a kind act. After engaging in an act of kindness, some found that the whole day just became better, while others experienced that they were able to listen better, became more mellow and were more liked by others.

    This small classroom experiment highlights an important insight about happiness. Yet much of modern life is guided by a very different philosophy—hedonism, which suggests that human behaviour is primarily motivated by maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Hedonism is a way of life for people for whom pleasure plays an important role. So, hedonists are always up for a good time, and their motto would probably be “YOLO – you only live once!” And, like the old hippie slogan goes – “If it feels good, do it!” The over emphasis on pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain could lead to self-indulgence and a plethora of short-cuts to pleasure – drugs, chocolate, alcohol, shopping and binge-watching to name a few. This pursuit of pleasure, via short-cuts, rather than by engaging in meaningful activity eventually leaves the person feeling empty and depressed. 

    The problem with hedonism can be looked at from two perspectives – on an individual level as well as from the point of view of the society and environment. Firstly, we humans have a tendency to quickly adapt to good things and take them for granted. The things that made us happy yesterday, are not making us equally happy today; today we need something better, bigger to feel the same level of happiness. But when we get the next big “high” we adapt to it as well. The pleasure fades, leaving us unsatisfied and gives rise to an urge to seek even stronger stimuli. There is a strong probability that this could lead to addiction and risky experimentation.

    The environmental argument is that hedonism gives rise to self-indulgence, which smothers awareness and rational thinking, thus leading to over-consumption. This in turn would lead to depletion of natural resources thus hastening destruction of the environment. As an example, chasing constant novelty, the urge to “keep up” and for quick gratification, many of us indulge in fast fashion, purchasing cheap clothes frequently, excessive to our needs. This worldwide practice is contributing to resource depletion (water, cotton, synthetic fibres) as well as significant pollution due to textile production and waste. Also, hedonic self-indulgence makes us focus on personal pleasure and immediate gratification, and lose sight of social obligations. We tend to become less empathetic and less concerned about the well-being of others. Self-absorption leads to weakening of social bonds and community spirit. To conclude, spending excessive time and money on self-indulgence leaves no scope for building meaningful relationships, or virtue activities like philanthropy.

    Pleasure isn’t really the enemy of happiness. But when it becomes a primary compass guiding our choices, it CAN lead us away from truly living a fulfilling and flourishing life. The purpose, hence, is not to eliminate pleasure, but balance it with meaning, engagement, compassion and responsibility – towards ourself, our family, the society and the planet. When we shift our focus from not just feeling good, but to doing good and being good, the happiness that follows is not fleeting, but enduring.

    Here’s to pursuing not just pleasure, but a life of meaning and flourishing!

    Dr. Vaishali Marathe (Ph.D)

    References:

    Seligman, M.E.P., Authentic Happiness, Hachette, 2002

    Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111–131. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111

  • The true meaning of happiness: digging beneath the surface

    The true meaning of happiness: digging beneath the surface

    All thinkers, philosophers and social scientists, right from Socrates from around 400 BC to modern day psychologists have been discoursing on the concept of happiness. Happiness is the one goal that all of us strive for. All of us want to be happy. In fact, it is the ultimate goal of all other goals! However, where we might differ is what each of us mean by the term ‘happiness’. Our interpretations of happiness might vary from what we are feeling right at this moment to what has been our state of mind for the past year. So positive psychologists and other social scientists prefer to use the term “Subjective Wellbeing” – an individual’s self-assessment of how they are feeling.

    Simply put, your subjective wellbeing depends on how you are feeling right now, and how satisfied you are with your life in general. Now, there are two components to this – feeling and thinking. So, for various reasons, you could be in a good mood, feeling joyful, excited and generally upbeat, or maybe you are in a bad mood, feeling upset, stressed and generally sad. Secondly, you experience life satisfaction (or maybe don’t) when you analyse your achievements in the important aspects of life – physical health, mental health, finances, family, career, social relationships and recreational activities / hobbies. So, the recipe for happiness seems pretty straightforward – do more of the stuff that makes you feel joyful and upbeat, less of what makes you feel sad and low, and create solid plans to increase life satisfaction. Seems simple? Maybe not… Let’s dig deeper.

    Figuring out what makes us feel joyful and upbeat could be a little tricky. Almost all philosophies across the world encourage us to recognize the difference between short-term pleasures and long-term happiness. Western philosophy discusses two kinds of “happiness” – hedonism and eudaimonia. Hedonism believes in maximizing pleasure, comfort and enjoyment while minimizing pain, discomfort and suffering. Though ethical, the path of hedonism has an inherent problem…but that’s a discussion for another day. Eudaimonia has been discussed extensively by the Greek thinker-philosopher Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) in his book Nicomachean Ethics. Eudaimonia believes that living well, or “flourishing” is more important than “feeling good”, and this is best achieved by identifying and cultivating virtues and pursuing excellence. 

    Vedantic Indian literature mentions two terms with relation to happiness – Ananda and Sukha Ananda could mean a wide range of feelings like happiness, joy, enjoyment etc., but mainly “refers to ultimate happiness or bliss”. Sukha means pleasure, comfort, prosperity etc. On the one hand, while Sukha can have a contrasting dual with Dukha, there is no such contrasting concept for Ananda, which is believed to be beyond Sukha and Dukha. 

    Thinking of doing things that make us feel joyful, energetic and upbeat brings to mind an interesting piece of research, where the authors analyse the term Sukha etymologically. Thus “su”, the prefix that generally means excellent or right, and “kha” which indicates space, have together been interpreted as “excellent space”. Taking the concept of happiness into the realm of architecture, the authors believe that just as good architecture is all about excellent management of the internal and external spaces of a house, true happiness can be achieved when an individual manages his own “spaces” well – spaces within himself like health as well as thoughts, emotions, actions etc., as well as those which are external like social and environmental. Thus, every individual is the architect of his or her own “excellent spaces”.

    So then, what really is the pathway to happiness? This is best explained by Martin Seligman in his book “Authentic Happiness”. He believes there are three pathways to happiness – the Pleasant Life, the Good Life and the Meaningful Life. The pleasant life is the path of acquiring bodily pleasures and quite akin to hedonism. The good life focuses on identifying your core strengths, building relevant competencies, using them in core areas of life, and thus “flourishing”. The meaningful life is all about using these strengths and competencies for the benefit of something other than and bigger than ourselves – like our family, society, a cause etc. The three pathways are not contradictory; in fact, a balanced life needs all three. So, it is important to learn new skills, use them at work, personal relations and recreational activities, and progress towards using them to add value to the society in any way possible, but that occasional pizza or a new dress is important too!

    Stay happy!

    Dr. Vaishali Marathe (Ph.D)

    References:

    Choudry, A., & Vinayachandra, B. K. (2015). Understanding Happiness: the Concept of sukha as ‘Excellent Space.’ Psychological Studies, 60(3), 356–367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-015-0319-5

    Ryan, R. M., Huta, V., & Deci, E. L. (2006). Living well: a self-determination theory perspective on eudaimonia. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 139–170. doi: 10.1007/s10902-006-9023-4

    Seligman, M.E.P., Authentic Happiness, Hachette, 2002