Ways To Obtain And Define Happiness

Ways to obtain and define happiness

To be able to talk about the ways in which one can obtain happiness, you have to define it. Personally, I understand happiness as a feeling of well -being and calm, which fills a fullness one. However, this can also occur as a fortuitous and intense feeling that can overwhelm. For example, I feel happy when I read a good book or I see a movie and, also, when someone close makes me smile with some nonsense.

I do not consider happiness as something that can be achieved. It is something that is there and wakes up with external stimuli and certain thoughts.

Socrates defends that it is the knowledge of good that leads us to the practice of virtue;And his exercise, the one that gives us happiness. If we extrapolate this to my position, we could say that if we know those ways of acting that we feel correct and the thoughts that arouse a positive attitude in us ("virtue"), and carry them out, a sense of well -being will emerge in us. We will feel happy.

Epicurus exposed knowledge as something of utmost importance to pursue happiness, which, according to him, should be based on avoiding fears and satisfying only some pleasures. You could say that the philosopher talks about what makes us really happy as pleasures, but distinguishes them according to their naturalness and need: encouraging to pursue the necessary natural pleasures and evade at all costs the unnecessary ones. I agree in your position, which takes into account the risks that one must take and relates it to the satisfaction of pleasures and happiness that can entail.

Among the phobias to avoid, I highlight the fear of failure. Happiness depends on the environment, there is no doubt on that, but we must not fear or overvalue the opinion of others, because happiness is also found, and possibly more durable and full, in self – esteem (epicureist autonomy) and peace withoneself (ataraxia).

The German philosopher, Kant, shows a similar idea in his ethics. For him, one must act according to duty and only out of respect for duty, claiming that the intention is the truly relevant, since complying with moral norms for the "social good" does not have to make us happier. That "respect" of the one who speaks towards one’s own duty, can be interpreted as the love of oneself. We act following moral norms for honoring our beliefs and that is what gives us happiness.

Taking into account what has been said above, I can say that to be happy we must act following what seems most correct and seeking the satisfaction of our desires, but always reasoning and valuing what we risk and what we would win when acting in one way or another.