Wednesday 9 October 2013

What makes you happy? (by Anne Rooney)

I'm writing a book for adults at the moment which is a set of philosophical questions. It's a sort of intellectual workout to help people to decide what they really think about various issues. It would be just as good for teenagers, though it won't be marketed directly at them. It's quite light-hearted, but it does drag in some old dead guys - some who have been dead for 2,500 years.

Yesterday I was working on the chapter How can I be happy? The possible answers given over the years range from "sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll" (the Cyrenaics, 4th century BC) to total disengagement with the material world so that the vicissitudes of fortune can't harm you - if you expect nothing, you won't be disappointed. Oh, and not forgetting 'you can't be happy, it's an illusion.' Most of the serious philosophers are agreed that just having a lot of money is not going to do it. A new iPhone doesn't get a look in.

As long as our basic needs for survival and health are met, companionship, thought and freedom seem to be the only things we really need. Epicurus (who set out that scheme only 100 hundred years after the party-guy Cyrenaics) spent his time living in a sort of commune with his friends outside Athens where they grew vegetables for their table and shared skills and tasks so that they didn't have to engage in commerce with the nasty, grasping Athenians. You can see that would be a nice life. (Philosophers are big on vegetables: Pythagoras thought beans should be protected from harm; Voltaire ended Candide with his hero growing vegetables; the Roman emperor Diocletian retired to Croatia to grow cabbages.) It's not quite having nothing, though, having a big villa outside Athens...

Of cabbages and kings...


Writing the chapter, and comparing all the ideas got me thinking about what - excluding those core elements already mentioned - makes me happy. And I came up with books; opera on the radio; a bit of free time. Isn't that mundane? And they are all free, or can be (there are libraries for the books). Another trick of the philosophers: think of something you want. How will your life be different if you have it? How will it be different if you don't? That helps you to judge how useful (in happiness terms) the object is. So a car might make you happy if it means you can travel to see friends and go to events. But a bigger car just so that you can look fancy in front of other road-users? No. Not so much.

On the whole, the things that get a tick serve those key things - companionship (drive to see your friends - or to meet essential needs), freedom (mobility gives you more choices), and thought (that's where the books and opera get in). Utility and happiness might seem unrelated, but of course they are not (look at the Utilitarians, calculating in terms of happiness and harm... but that's another chapter). When you want something, ask why - what does it do for you? Incidentaly, Epicurus thought fame and power to be both unnecessary and unnatural desires. A big car is a natural but unnecessary desire.

So - what makes you happy? That is, excluding health, enough to eat, somewhere to live and your family having the same essentials, which are givens in this question. Do you even know, or have we lost track somewhere along the line? I'll raise you books, opera and some free time. And maybe a bar of Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt.

Anne Rooney
aka Stroppy Author
The Story of Philosophy will be published on 15th October (that's not the book I'm still writing!)

11 comments:

Joan Lennon said...

I'll see your books, opera and some free time (and the judicious application of chocolate) and raise you, work that makes a difference. Define at will.

(Er, I don't know how to play poker, so my seeing and raising may be wrong.)

Heather Dyer said...

Fascinating! I'm wondering who it is that 'disengages with the world' so that life can't touch them...? This is a common misconception about the Eastern religions, like Buddhism. That's not really what they do though - they basically endeavour to acknowledge (not accept, which implies condoning) that the pleasant and the unpleasant are inevitable, and that being accepting of both and allowing them to flow through you without trying to block them or hang on to them, is the way to ride through life. This is the best route I've found to happiness, and is taught in the West now as 'mindfulness'. You can even try it out by 'acknowledging' what your emotions are and not trying to change them. Even doing this immediately puts them a little distance away from you so that you are no longer caught up in the turmoil and can see it more objectively. This, in my view, is the surest way to happiness.

What a wonderful book to be working on. I look forward to reading other posts... h

Lynda Waterhouse said...

Having space and time to potter about and to think and dream, conversations and laughter with friends, black and white movies, caramels and a good book. I also love watching dogs race around in parks - their joy is infectious!

JO said...

Books, tea in bed in the morning, the smell of mown grass, the view from the top of Martinsell Hill, wine on a summer's evening ... and setting off for the airport knowing I'm flying somewhere I've never been before.

Dianne Hofmeyr said...

And we mustn't forget apart from growing cabbages Diocletian also had a wonderful palace in Split just next to the sea!

Apart from books,chocolates and living next to the sea... living in the present helps happiness. Just accepting where you are and enjoying it. No backward glances to what you should or could have done, no forward thoughts to what you should or could achieve or anxiety for the future. Just being in the present. Right now I'm drinking a delicious cup of rooibos tea.

Savita Kalhan said...

Books, music, film, family, friends, allotment, um, shall I go on? I must be easily pleased and find happiness everywhere... (not sure anyone would really think that if they knew the real me!)Small pleasures are the key.

Ann Turnbull said...

Books, my cat, woodland walks, museums, new balls of knitting wool, stationery.

Stroppy Author said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stroppy Author said...

Wonderful additions, all - thank you. But you're *still* not getting may points for friends and family as they were in the orginal 'givens'.

Heather - Diogenes, for one. And the Stoics took a similar approach to some of the eastern religions of letting things flow rather than immersing you.

Heather Dyer said...

Thanks Anne, will look them up

h

Nicola Morgan said...

Feeling that one's efforts and/or talents (in whatever field) have been valued and appreciated? This might be in terms of some kind of success or just in terms of being thanked for something.

For example, I suffered poor health and elements of depression for many years because (my diagnosis) I was desperate to be published. Being published *has* made me happy - even if aspects of it drive me demented!

So, affirmation is, for some people at least (maybe almost all?) a necessity for happiness?