An age old question for sure. Still today, all around us people are searching for what it really means to be happy. What does happiness look like? What must I do to be happy? How do I make the happiness last? All of these are common questions amongst today’s society, and it seems as if every individual has their own opinion od what happiness really is. With some 7 billion of these opinions it is certainly difficult to weed out those definitions of happiness that make the most sense. For some people happiness might simply be a Big Mac or a cute little yellow lab puppy, but for other the meaning of happiness reaches much deeper – as it should. John Stuart Mill, a philosopher of the 19th century, in the section on happiness in his text on Utilitarianism, claimed happiness to be “an existence as free as possible from pain and as rich as possible in enjoyment (8).” That is straight forward enough, but as he raises objections to his argument, we see that even this definition lacks a bit of required depth.
The main objection is that humans can never reach happiness. Such objectors claim that the real goal of this life is “virtue,” and not happiness. Here Mill brings up his beloved topic of utilitarianism and argues that in observance of utility, obtaining happiness is not the only point of the matter, but also avoiding unhappiness. He goes on to say that if such objectors mean happiness to be “a continuous state of highly pleasurable excitement,” then he would agree that obtaining such a state would be impossible. However, when he further explains his definition of happiness, it is seen that such a state is in fact obtainable. He claims that a life sporting true happiness would be one in which there are times of pleasure accompanied with the occasional times of unpleasantness, along with a realistic drive to obtain a state of contentment in one’s endeavors (9).
Mill goes on to lie out two basic requirements of happiness. These requirements are “mental cultivation and unselfishness.” He claims that such things are available to all, not only the rich and comfortable, but also to those in a less achieved state of living. Mill explains how these two things are give way to happiness not by an individual seeking them out of “curiosity” or just for their own benefit, but for the sake of the things themselves. Seeking after such things for personal benefit, or out of a desire to be happy will not make you happy, for doing so would violate the second requirement of unselfishness. Mill argues that in the world we live in there are more than enough things to make us happy, so there is really no excuse for not being so. Humans have always longed for something to fill a hole in them that will make them happy, but time and time again the hole remains void. What is the answer to the age-old question of what is happiness? Happiness…
Still haven’t revised this one…
Mill, John Stuart. “Utilitarianism.” (1996): n. pag. Earlymoderntexts.com. Jonathan Bennett, Apr. 2008. Web. Nov. 2015.