thank you for your very good comment!

Regarding your question: if you would not want to re-live the experience being at the dentist (I believe most people would not) then your “happiness state” would be in the negative. However, we still go because we know that if we don’t, we will later experience a state which would be much more (and much longer) in the negative end of the scale (e.g. severe tooth pain).

Same is true for many other decisions: we sacrifice short-term happiness for the sake of more long-term happiness. I believe this is also an important “human” capability (not seeking immediate pleasure for the sake of the long run).

Thank you,

NIck

This is Jeff Mason from the Philosophers’ Magazine replies to your question. I looked at your blog and enjoyed it very much. It reminded me of Nietzsche’s ‘Most Terrible Thought” which is the thought that we are all fated to lives out the same lives to the uttermost detail that we live right now. It is the “Infinite Repetition of the Same.” This is terrible if one cannot will to live each moment for all eternity. So I must ask myself if I can will to write this letter to you over and over again. If the answer is “Yes!”, then one has discovered the secret to life. As for your happiness test, what about cases like going to the dentist where I really do not want to relive the experience, and yet I return regularly to get them checked and cleaned? Would this be ‘zero’ on your scale? Thanks for your comment, too. Jeff

So in this context, happiness would be a «value achievement meter». The more important, integrated and reached a value, the more will the happiness be.

This way, a masochist who values pain ( for whatever reason… ) can still be very happy.
Giving birth to a child is pain, but can be a real important and integrated value.

Like an internal brain computer, this process can’t really be controlled. Say, you can’t decide to be sad, or happy.
You have to thing about sad et happy memories to (maybe..) have the emotion, that is you have to «feed» that computer.

But the «values» are up to us.

So, the way to happiness is thru values. Having a good and solid base of integrated values, paving a way thru life is a shure way toward happiness.
Having multiple unintegrated values, whims instead of values, no solid value base, no «target» in life renders happiness a «chance occasion» or a fast dying emotion.
Having un-human, non-social or very different values than the majority will surely put happiness one or many steps higher than others ( if reacheable at all. ).
And an unreacheable important value is shurely not good for happyness.

Finallly, a value, once reached (and integrated), will no longer be a source of happiness ( but can still be a value ! ).
So, as an example, without an integrated set of values ( values build upon other values as a guide in life ), the girl next door, after a few night, will not bring the same happiness and will be dumped for the one at another door.
Wouldn’t that explain why happiness ate stillness.

High degree of happiness is reached when happiness is no longer sought out of starvation but only used as a guide to asserts and correct one’s values…

I found that my academic training and work had fed on my natural tendencies (leaning towards analytical, introvert and unemotional) to be serious and pessimistic that somehow affected my relationships and contributed much to stress in my life. I resolved to correct this and pursued my interests on blogging and happiness.

I am telling you this to provide context as to why I am sticking to the how of happiness and the subjective aspects of this topic at WANNABEHAPPYNOW.COM instead of digging deeper to understanding it scientifically. I am just starting to train myself to “see the bright side of life” and now already seeing some positive impact

Now to add to the discussion: to truly “objectivize” it, one needs to drill down to the lower levels of organizations (especially because people may consciously or unconsciously deceive oneself so that one can be happy–this is as a big challenge to research through questionnaires or surveys). Measurements on interplay of hormones (as Pritwish mentioned) as well as recent & later developments on brain research would allow one to link the subjective feelings of happiness and the physical manifestations in the molecular level. And “exceptions” such as the masochists that many visitors pointed to and questions about animal instincts would be instructive in defining or choosing among the proposed definitions of happiness (and even consciousness). Later on, linking this to the ultimate reason of life (propagating one’s DNA), i.e. whether one’s subjective happiness (which I imagine can be objectively linked & measured at the molecular level) is evolutionarily “valid” (as Kang & Ying pointed out), is much more interesting as we know from everyday experience that individuals’ actions or decisions vary even to a similar set of circumstances. Again this might be due to the “confusion” Pritwash referred to when what the conscious and unconscious minds say collide.

I hope to read more of your blogs.

This is it for now. Regards,

Papa Sez

I found a little bit of Joy and Happiness in reading about your exploration and understanding as well as your definition of happiness itself. A very cool blog, creative, entertaining and thought provoking. However, if given the option to re-live this moment as an end in itself if offered to me for free? Perhaps, I mean considering I already carry a slight memory of your brief synopsis another read would simply deepen its engraving in my memory. If offered the decision to read an article of this nature without prior recollection of already doing so, would I, perhaps, only because I ChooSe for a Greater Understanding and Knowledge of Happiness only because I wish to BE HAPPY.

I believe “Happiness” is a state of mind. No different than hatefulness, anger, being jealous, greedy or even being in Love. It is a state of mind. “People are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” – Lincoln. There is no right or wrong way to pass through this Life, and I am in no place to pass judgment on another man’s choices and the way that he choose to live his life whether happy or unhappy. We are our own.

Do I approve of your Happiness Scale and definition?

I approve.

It does carry a loop to it unless i’m ignorant of understanding. I mean we’ve all seen Bill Murray’s Groundhog’s Day, right? Putting a definition on happiness is similar to putting a definition on the color Green. We all recognize green to be the color it is but if you changed the name to blue, red or even brown that wouldn’t change the original properties of the color green. Green is not the name but instead what is perceived through our visual sense. Just as happiness is perceived through our emotional sense, the more you recognize it the more you’ll see it. Your definition fly’s, its more of a simple experiment to test yourself with.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to discuss.

I’ve always liked to consider myself “Lucky to Know that I am Happy and Happy to Know that I’m Lucky.”

Sincerely,

Murat Orhan Suleiman

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