The Meaning of Life – Happiness

To live a good life is to maximise pleasure. There are all sorts of permutations and combinations relating to the philosophy of happiness, and just thinking about them and trying to make sense of them can serve to take your mind off any unhappiness that you may have had. Maybe this is why people often turn to deep thought when unhappy. A thousand questions begin to pop up:

1. What is happiness? (I think anyone who’s ever said or thought “I am happy” knows what happiness is. In other words, anyone who’s ever been happy knows what happiness is, as happiness is an experience, a state of mind.)

2. Is it unethical to have happiness as your main goal in life? (Surely it will lead to selfish actions, or in other words, it’ll make you an arsehole?)

1000. Why does it feel liberating when someone says to you “just be happy”? (Presumably, you’re not prioritising your own happiness. Surely, though, everyone is seeking happiness through their actions in some sense?)

One of the earliest teachers of a happiness-based way of thinking was Epicurus. Far from being a party boy, though, as is often associated with hedonism, Epicurus taught that the best way to maximise happiness was to live a life of moderation – “Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.” Drinking beer until you get drunk might make you happy for the one night, but the next day you’ll more than likely feel like shit. Drink in moderation, though (which of course requires self-discipline), and you’ll have a good night tonight as well as not being hungover the next day. One criticism of such a philosophy is that it is selfish, that is, as long as you are happy, then the rest of the world can go and get stuffed. A counter argument to this might be that in order to achieve happiness, the external world will require some sort of order, and relationships with other people will have to be cultivated, which will in turn require altruistic thoughts and actions. Or perhaps selfishness is necessary to some extent in cultivating happiness, perhaps there are moments when one has to think that the world can go and get stuffed in order to be happy in that particular moment.

It seems to me that life is about choices. A person has the choice to drink themselves to a stupor, or stop after a few. A person has the choice when faced with heavy external criticism to think “they can all go and get stuffed” or they can take the criticism as truth which will result in a severely depleted self-esteem. There’s more than just two possible responses, too, there are a million ways in which a person could react to criticism, there’s an unlimited amount of ways a person can handle their drinking. In fact, they’re only faced with the option of drinking if they made an earlier decision which resulted in them being in a place where drinks are available. Where these choices lead, who knows? You just hang on and go for the ride.