Happiness 1st Installment: Refining Ambiguity or Maybe Just Rambling by Liam Quinn

I would like to preface both my first and second installment by clarifying that I do not have a particularly specific topic. Instead my intentions are to accentuate ideas and thoughts that we have studied throughout the semester that I have found personally beneficial as well as lastingly influential on my understanding of happiness. In doing so I hope to inspire discussion from my peers on what they have found most important for their understanding and also ask if anyone feels closer to a more defined grasp of the subject.

Over the course of this semester we have tried to reach a better understanding of the essence of happiness, and we have examined extensive areas of thought and numerous philosophers, mostly Western, to seek guidance in our exploration of the subject. As pointed out by the comic above, the act of philosophizing can lead to a reductive feeling in one’s understanding of a subject, while in the midst of trying to peel back the layers of preconceived notions and beliefs that may or may not be true. Occam’s razor is clearly not a common practice within this field. However, it remains in question whether academic scrutiny of happiness is the best strategy for evoking or defining it, and I believe John Stuart Mill’s advice regarding the importance of relaxing the analytical mind to give priority to the interior self and one’s emotion and feeling is a concept clearly worth maintaining in order to allay the inevitable problems presented by the former method. Furthermore, Mill’s advice is now perhaps the best response I have to the futility of the psychological term of “subjective well-being” and the systematic classification and statistical analysis of the idea of happiness which is seemingly so perfectly indefinable and variable across and within cultures that a survey and a rating system could not possibly determine a realistic conclusion.

That being said, throughout our philosophical quest, the large scope of writings from different thinkers we have encountered have proven to be valuable in presenting ideas that truly help to illuminate a dim framework from which one can utilize as foundation to understand and achieve happiness and avoid the potential conflation or mistaken substitute of complacency. What I have come to realize throughout this course is that happiness truly does require work. Happiness is a product of not only the environment over which one may not have control over and often does not, but also what we choose to think about. This is an essential take away for me, and it is directly related to Frankl’s philosophical message in Man’s Search for Meaning. An often quoted assertion from his writing, and perhaps the main takeaway states, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” This pronouncement seems so obvious and almost cliché, but it is a pivotal start to what I believe must be a lifelong focus, which I will elaborate upon in the second installment.