What is Happiness? Essay -- John Stuart Mill Essays

What is rapture? People have agonized over this question for centuries. Let me galvanize this essay by answering a somewhat easier question what isnt ecstasy? bliss is NOT feeling good each(prenominal) the time. Happiness is a combination of human emotions and states of mind. Exploring this state of being has consumed the philosophical minds of the ages and testament continue to do so for ages to come. In an unofficial poll of students at State University, I found that of the fifty-eight students and one professor, males and females of several cultural backgrounds and age groups, that I asked the question What is gaiety to you?, all of them had very distinguishable physical, intellectual, or emotional motivator for their happiness. Only the professor stated what happiness was to him. The students, ranging in age from 20 years to 45 years, all r of material things that would make them happy. They couldnt seem to grasp happiness as a concept in itself. The questions that are asked when exploring the concept of happiness should begin with hope to know if it is a pleasure based in our basic and early emotions. Next, is happiness motivated by pure desire? Does a genial state of rejoicing produce happiness? Does happiness come from a simple, physical feeling? Maybe happiness is a combination of all of these. According to John Stuart Mill, The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the superior Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they draw to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain by unhappiness, pain, ... ...rabstract theory separates them from any other creature on earth, but it also makesthem erratic unto themselves. What makes one person happy may or may non make anotherperson happy. Happiness, in and of itself, in my opinion, in unatt ainable. To be content witha minimum of worries is as close to absolute happiness as a person can come. For myself, I believe that align happiness is an psychotic belief. I believe in the desire-driventheory of happiness. When I mold the need for the illusion of happiness, I attempt toachieve it by fulfilling my unorthodox needs through the gratification of my immediatedesires. I find that contentment and the drive to continue to achieve my desires is muchmore important than the illusion of happiness.Works CitedPojman, Louis P. Classics of Philosophy Volume II Modern and Contemporary. New YorkOxford UP, 1998.