02/09/2025
HUMAN HAPPINESS
People have always wanted to be happy, but few attained this highly sought condition to satisfy themselves. Anyway, happiness appears to be a many-splendored thing and has various meaning for different people. So, without getting marred into a deep philosophical quicksand, let us try to analyse and elucidate this elusive concept in as few key words and ideas as possible.
To Aristotle, who was the first to consider systematically this concept, happiness (eudemonia) embodied a good humor or spiritual state of mind; i.e. having the contentment of a well-lived life. But that sought-after goal is easier said than done. So, how does one carry on such enviable life that evaded so many?
By process of elimination, the way to happiness is not simply amassing great wealth, fame or sensory gratification. Rather, it focuses on self-actualization by cultivating self-knowledge, thus balancing one’s strength and weakness to create the best possible existence, meaning an optimal-feasible being and becoming!
Happiness derives from a balanced combination of characteristics that apply to a situation, without pushing them to extremes in any. It is this search of balance or golden mean that leads to a life of ongoing happiness. Since man is a social animal, for most people, happiness incorporates a moral virtue and depends on good sociability that includes a significant contribution to the commonwealth.
Although some people my find happiness in solitude, these loners are the exception to the search of happiness within society. Therein, a happy person can only coexist among the fellow members of concentric circles, from families, tribes, nations to ultimately the whole world of humanity in its natural environment.
All these interconnected circles demand several, often contradictory, concessions and compromises. This confusing situation in a complex and changing reality puts great pressure for anyone to understand, let alone properly react in order to survive and develop. Yet, in order to succeed, one must also do so happily.
Happiness, therefore, is not only an end but also a means of optimizing one’s life. Such happily engaging mental attitude of the individual with the social and natural environment demands an acceptance of the interdependence and interaction resulting from the give and take that makes human living worthwhile.
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