Mutluluk

Very Short Introductions #360

by Daniel M. Haybron, Sevgi Halime Özçelik (Translator)

Mutluluk tanımlarınız nelerdir?

Mutluluğu nasıl ölçersiniz?

Mutluluğun kaynakları nelerdir?

Bu soruların yanıtlarını vermek basit gibi görünse de gerçekte mutluluğu tanımlamak biraz güçtür. Evet, mutluluk sık kullandığımız bir terimdir ve elbette çoğumuz mutlu olmak için didiniriz. Ancak mutluluğun ne olduğunu ve onu nelerin sağladığını göz önünde bulundurabilmek, insanların uğruna didinip durdukları şeyi kavramak adına başlı başına yeterli olmayabilir. Aynı zamanda mutluluğun ahlaki bir yaşamla nasıl bağdaştığı üzerine düşünmeyi de ihmal etmemek gerekir.

Yazar Daniel M. Haybron bu kitapta mutluluğun mahiyetini araştırırken, kavramı felsefi ve psikolojik yönlerden ele alarak, aynı zamanda onun hakkında tarihsel ve çağdaş düşüncelere genel bir bakış atma fırsatı sağlıyor. Mutluluğun ne anlama geldiğini, yaşamımızdaki önemini, onun peşinde nasıl koştuğumuzu ve neden koşmamız gerektiğini inceleyerek çeşitli disiplinlerde mutluluk üzerine geliştirilen güncel düşünceleri özlü şekilde irdeliyor.

Mutluluğa giden değişik yolları gösteren Haybron, iyi bir yaşam arayışıyla ilgili fikirlere kafa yoruyor, sosyal bağlamın memnuniyetimiz ve iyi oluşumuz üzerindeki etkisini değerlendiriyor.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology, Nonfiction, Science

172 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2013

About the author

Dan Haybron (PhD, Rutgers University) works in ethics, moral psychology, and political philosophy. Broadly speaking, he is interested in the connection between human nature and the good life. His research focuses mainly on the psychology of well-being and its connections with issues in ethical and political thought, as well as empirical research on well-being. In 2015 he was awarded a $5.1 million grant for a three-year project, Happiness and Well-Being: Integrating Research Across the Disciplines, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Saint Louis University.

Reviews

[Mustafa Hasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

توجد في الغرب دراسات علمية غير روحية عن السعادة ويحاولون قياسها والبحث عن مصادرها في مختبر العلم
كتاب السعادة هذا يشتمل على كثير من المعلومات المهمة عن علم السعادة وابحاث العلماء حولها ..
لكنه كما هو مبين في عنوان الكتاب مقدمة .. فهو مشتت ويحاول ان
يغطي كل ابحاث السعادة وقد لاتجد فيه تلك الوصفة الطبية التي تفيدك شخصيا
الكتاب مفيد الى حد ما ويقف بنا على مفاتيح اساسية

[Chris Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's first few chapters defined the different theories of happiness, and their respective advantages and disadvantages in acting as a useful and accurate metric. While Haybron was clearly biased towards agreeing with the Emotional State Theory over Hedonism and Life Satisfaction Theory, he clearly stated his opinion and left room for the reader to make their own judgements.

Towards the end of the book, I felt that Haybron's assessments became increasingly opinionated, and more of an explanation of his views rather than an introduction to the origins and philosophies of happiness.

I was also looking to learn more about moral views on happiness, and arguments as to why it should be valued, but Haybron largely glossed over this in the later chapters.

Overall, 4/5 stars because the book did provide A Very Short Introduction to Happiness (and included some great quotes and wisdom), but Haybron's writing turned into an exposition of his own views rather than a genuine exploration of the meaning of happiness.

[Yassmeen Altaif · Rating 3 out of 5]

انتهيت منه ولم أحصل جواب ماهي السعادة؟

لأنه السعادة شيء لا يوصف.

هل حصولنا على وظيفة ممتازة وذا راتب مرتفع هي سعادة أم ماذا؟
كيف نحكم على سعادة الآخرين؟

يختلف مفهوم السعادة لكل شخص، قد يراها شخص في العائلة احتوائها وآخر في المال الوفير و غيرها.

[Daria · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few good, thought-provoking quotes but nothing more. Doesn’t seem well-researched and isn’t well-written, especially not towards the end. I’m sure a few people could take at least ~some~thing from this though.

[Nadin Doughem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this book but waited on writing a review as I stumbled upon another book that gave me answers to what I was really looking for. Unfortunately that book is only issued in Arabic language to this date, that you may find here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Happiness: a very short introduction by Daniel Haybron, started off real strong; digging into the meaning of happiness and how it differs from a satisfactory life. He also covered measurement of happiness and how it can be biased and deem untrue as every person has different perspectives on what happiness means and reflects to him. He also stated the difference between happiness and well-being.

Lastly, he came across the fact of having one’s life meaningful, which I trust is the where should this book have revolved upon. And that what made the book, mentioned above, giving more answers than you would find in this short non exhaustive introduction.

Another setback about the book is disregarding the different cultures and religions. Also it appears that Daniel has been oblivious on considering the MENA region which to my opinion would have made a difference to the outcome of this short study.

Nadin Doughem
November 2024

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off well, with some clear discussion of various theories of happiness and a definition of the scope of the discussion, but it got fuzzier and mushier as it went along. By the end, it had decayed into an ordinary assertion of personal beliefs. Less a work of philosophy than a lightly-disguised self-help manual.

[Will Corvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Allegedly philosophy, but comes off more as fatherly advice. Can tend to be elitist at times as Haybron emphasizes how his way of life is superior (ex. frequent vacationing).

[Nooreddin Alwattar · Rating 4 out of 5]

كعادة المقدمات القصيرة، تعطي لمحة عامة وتجمع الآراء والنظريات المختلفة حول الموضوع ..
زادت معرفتي بشكل كبير عن الموضوع كما وجدت الكثير من الأجوبة فيه ..
فيه بعض التشتت في الفصول والترجمة سيئة.

[Eslam Sami · Rating 3 out of 5]

مقدمة قصيرة عن السعادة تدرس الموضوع وتعطي مفاهيم ونظريات عن مفهوم السعادة
إلا انها لم تتغول في الإجابة ما هي السعادة

[محمد المحمد · Rating 3 out of 5]

أعتقد أنك لكي تستفيد من الكتاب جيداً ، يجب ألاّ تقرأه كشخص ينتظر جواباً واحداً مختصراً ذو سياق مرتّب وزاوية رؤية عالية لأنك لن تجد مرادك ،، الكتاب مقدمة مختصرة شاملة ( مفاهيم كثيرة - مقاييس - نظريات - فلسفات) للسعادة ،، هذا الأمر الذي شتتني قليلاً ،، قد يكون مفيداً لطالب متخصص يبحث عن مفاتيح لفهم السعادة .
شخص عادي مثلي قد يستخدم بعض الأفكار الجديدة من هذا الكتاب ويقرأه بعين الطائر .
خفيف -١٧٥ صفحة ، الترجمة لم ترق لي كثيراً ،، مللت وشعرت بالتوهان في بعض الصفحات .

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's peculiar how people who write, and read, books about 'happiness' are not actually the happiest people.

Chapter 1: A remarkable fact
Chapter 2: What is happiness?
Chapter 3: Life satisfaction
Chapter 4: Measuring happiness
Chapter 5: The sources of happiness
Chapter 6: Beyond happiness: well-being
Chapter 7: Getting outside oneself: virtue and meaning
Chapter 8: A good life

[Rachel Renz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. I read this for Ethics, though we skipped chapters 4-5.

[Hakim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this at a bad time
I didn't really feel much
so I guess my rating doesn't count

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing revolutionary here, but an accessible introduction to a favorite pet topic of mine (i.e. high praise due to its paucity of competition).

I find it baffling that the study of “happiness” is so badly marginalized to fringe of science and philosophy. The annoying knee-jerk response tends to be “There’s more to life to happiness”–obviously true, and rather irrelevant. Ask just about any philosopher, ore even any bloke on the street, and they’d agree. There’s more to life than any one thing, but as “one things” go, this is a rather important one. Maybe we should hold off on worrying about happiness eclipsing our other values, until it’s more than a niche discipline. Even the book with the literal title “Happiness: A Very Short Introduction” devotes the majority of its time the diversity of ways we find meaning in our lives, and the limits of experiencing joy! I can’t think of another topic where the balance of importance to attention received is so out of whack.

——————————
Notes/summary for my own later recollection.

Haybron considers three dimensions of happiness. “Attunement” is our acceptance of our circumstance, and our sense of safety, “engagement” is the degree to which we actively engage ourselves in our activities, and “endorsement”, the outright feelings of joy. Broadly, this view of happiness regards “emotional wellbeing”, based on both your current emotions, and your emotional propensity (i.e. not just your current state, but your propensity to experience emotions based on some new stimuli).

In contrast to emotional wellbeing, Haybron considers “life satisfaction”. The premise that you can subjectively evaluate your own life and boil it down to a single number is inherently absurd (and it tends to mostly measure personal expectations, rather than their own experience). And yet, whether or not people are satisfied with their lives absolutely matters, and it’s the tidiest way to incorporate heterogenous value judgments. The focus of the book is on emotional wellbeing, and what is needed beyond that to live a “good life”, but life satisfaction correlates reasonably well with many things we care about. One quote:

Dialysis patients in one study reported life satisfaction no lower than healthy individuals, yet also stated that they would give up half their remaining life-years to regain normal kidney function. In other words, their life satisfaction reports failed to register a colossal dissatisfaction, probably because they coped with the illness by comparing themselves with other patients.

Chapter 4, on “Measuring Happiness”, is important, and while the title says “very short introduction”, I do wish this went into a little more rigorous detail. TLDR: of course “measuring happiness” is very difficult and imprecise, but it can still be very informative. Typically, it’s best not to ask directly about “happiness”–rather, you want to use a battery of questions that cover the dimensions of emotional wellbeing that we care about. (Do you feel angry or stressed right now, do you find yourself enjoying your leisure activities, did you smile enough yesterday, are you quick to anger, etc are examples he cites). No single answer is reliable, but in aggregate, it seems like an obviously valuable goal for people to end up on the right side of the scale. Think of it as a reverse anxiety/depression questionnaire (where it’s generally uncontroversial that they have some use).

While this is meant to be introductory, I do take a little issue with “For these questions… many errors tend to wash out when comparing large groups of people. The reason is that you’ll get the same errors in each group, so any differences between the groups probably aren’t due to error.” This is such a crude simplification of practice, that it’s not a very useful claim. The rest of the chapter does a better job of sketching the issues with measuring happiness, and what to look for, I just wish there was more detail.

The sources of happiness are obviously highly context dependent (not just individuals, but even cultures). Broadly, Haybron outlines five useful categories to consider (ignoring genes–he mentions the powerful measures of heredity, but is more concerned with those that we could plausibly change).

1. Security. Crucially, what matters is perceived security. Material security is vital, but it can just as easily be about perception and mindset, which makes affluence no simple cure (the Buddhists, Stoics, and your grandmother are well ahead of the curve on that one). It is also important to feel socially secure (overlapping with relationships), secure in your prospects (i.e. capacity to achieve broader goals), and of course “time security” (having the available time to do what you need to do, and not feeling rushed/stressed).
2. Outlook. Telling someone to just change their attitude, think positively, and thus become happy, is obviously terrible terrible advice. But it’s also undeniably true that we have some capacity to adjust our outlook, and substantially impact our own happiness though it. A useful way that Haybron describes it is that your outlook isn’t a pair of shoes you try on, it’s a skill you cultivate through years of effort. The first two dimensions are positivity (focusing on life’s pleasures, expressing gratitude, etc), and acceptance (controlling expectations, maintaining perspective, etc). Only a brief discussion of this point, but I wish we had WAY more science on it–feels like this is vastly underutilized (it’s mostly used for bad self-help, rather than taken seriously as a skill to cultivate). You can also add the dimensions of caring for others (getting outside one’s self, religion is a handy way to do it), and intrinsic motivation.
3. Autonomy. Obviously the capacity for self determination is subjective, and situational, but it’s still important when planning how to structure your life.
4. Substantive relationships. The most obvious, and probably the most important. Should not be underestimated.
5. Skilled/meaningful activity. We can be drawn to mindless tasks, but we are made much happier by those which can actively engage us (a personal hobby horse of mine, foundational to how I structure my free time).

The second half of the book is largely devoted to what it means to live a good life beyond just happiness. Certainly important, but you can’t summarize thousands of years of philosophy very well in 60 pages. Won’t bother summarizing the chapters (as nothing here is unique), but to oversimplify it, the key point is probably the following. If you work at it, it’s typically not hard to be “happy enough”.

“Happiness doesn’t require a whole lot: human needs are pretty and commonsensical… stick to the basics, and you can do pretty well.”

If you orient your life around those main sources of happiness, and your genes are reasonable, you’ll probably feel that you have a happy enough life when asked. Then, with your own emotional wellbeing well enough off, you can turn your energy towards living a good and meaningful life. What gives your life “meaning” of course depends on your own belief system, but that’s what you should sort out, and it probably involves working on virtue and etc. While very doable, this is not a trivial task. We are prone to being lured in by value systems that we don’t really believe in (e.g. most people’s actions seem much more materialistic than their beliefs, even though materialism doesn’t seem to be a very good fit for either personal happiness or common definitions of virtue…). As with just about everything in life, the only solution is to give it enough attention. Luckily, the main moral of any attempt to define “happiness” is that being “happy enough” to make life worth living, and then acting in a way that you personally find meaningful, tends to be very achievable. Turns out life is pretty good.

[DoCong Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuốn sách này đi xa hơn chủ đề hạnh phúc, trong đó hạnh phúc chỉ là một nấc thang trên con đường
đến với cuộc đời đáng sống, mà nấc đầu tiên là sự hài lòng với cuộc sống.
Không dựa quá nhiều vào các dẫn chứng khoa học, cuốn sách do đó đỡ khô khan và có lẽ như thế lại phù hợp hơn với 1 chủ đề gần gũi với mỗi người: hạnh phúc. Cả 2 yếu tố đó làm cho cuốn sách dễ dàng tạo được sự xúc động nơi người đọc, và khi đọc mỗi người không khỏi liên hệ và suy nghĩ về cuộc đời mình, và tự định hình ra cho mình một cuộc đời đáng sống.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book more than the his book The Pursuit of Unhappiness. Haybron makes some good points about the importance of meaning and morality. The book had less lengthy discussions of issues that only matter to philosophers than Pursuit did. However, it still had some discussions of such issues. One example is thought experiments.

He dismisses hedonism too readily using just the lame experience machine thought experiment. He admits that some people say they would use the experience machine. But there is no such thing as an experience machine and it's unclear how important people's answer to such an unrealistic stupid question would be. If such thought experiments are the basis of your arguments that is a serious problem. The notion of a perfectly reliable experience machine (especially any time soon) isn't plausible or connected to reality... You might as well BE in an experience machine if you spend your time and make your money pondering such things as you aren't in the real world. Do philosophers care about that??? Doesn't that bother them? Plato gave them the justification to care more about a world of "forms" and "truth" than the way things actually seem to be. They live in their heads. If only subjective meaning exists, then maybe people just care about connections with people they have in this world and would miss them if they went to live in the "experience machine." There isn't really follow up regarding WHY people would not go into the experience machine (or at least not much). There is just an assumption that "SEE?? This means that experience isn't all that matters!! Truth matters!!" That isn't necessarily what the people are thinking when they say they wouldn't live in it.

When discussing meaning, Haybron claims that there is "objective" meaning people can find in their lives. I am convinced that there is ONLY subjective meaning and the notion of "objective" meaning has no ontological justification. There is really just meaning, which is something you experience when you do engage in something you care about, appreciate and value. It generally is pleasant in that you can experience "flow." It doesn't have to be social as Jonathan Haidt claimed in Susan Wolf's book on meaning. It might be social in some sense in that you probably had to maybe learn language in order to engage in meaningful projects and language is developed by people... The closest thing to what Haybron calls "Objective" meaning is doing things most people find meaningful. It's like a competition for status or to be "praiseworthy" to others. Just because most people find something meaningful doesn't mean anything "objective" about the universe or even human life itself. It seems that something is "objectively meaningful" in the way Susan Wolf claims if other people you care about care about it... If you care about what most people think or if you're an elitist like Daniel Haybron or Susan Wolf (who read too much ancient philosophy, are foodies and maybe hang out at cocktail parties), then you will care a lot about what other people like you think. To claim that is "objectively meaningful" is arrogant with no justification philosophically. I guess it isn't that "profound" to philosophers to say that "meaning" is something you experience when you engage in something you care about and value.

It seems like Haybron partly wants to avoid allowing meaning to be subjective, because then someone could say that they find meaning in engaging in experiences that make them happy or trying to maintain their own happiness.

Haybron claims that he cannot necessarily find a justification for some absolute, universal, moral laws. However, when he mentions how factory farming is bad for the planet and it's obvious what we should do about it, he just thinks about it in isolation divorced from the real world. Maybe it is bad for the planet but if you can't or don't want to spend your whole paycheck on groceries, then maybe it isn't so simple. If there is no regulation on a larger scale to make a difference in factory farming and the price is too high for "ethical" foods, then, on reflection about the REAL world, you may not come to Daniel Haybron's conclusions. There also might be competing moral concerns that you have. Your first concern may not be the suffering of animals. There are many different things a human might care about and find more important, particularly in a world with so many things one person could focus on. Most importantly, I think morality is how about how humans live together and cooperate. That's it. It isn't about armchair thought experiments or philosophical reasoning sessions that yield the "true" "universal" moral laws. Haybron wants to avoid saying that someone could rationally not care about morality. I think he's wrong. I am not saying I don't care about morality, but the reality is that people can rationally choose to opt out of focusing on it.

He makes some good points about happiness that make the book worth reading and I appreciate that it isn't written using a ton of jargon. So, 3 stars.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR: This is the best Very Short Introduction book I’ve yet read, and it contains some important insight on how to think about happiness.

There are really only two things I need to say about this book. First, this is the best Very Short Introduction I’ve read yet. Second, this is the best book on happiness I’ve read yet. I suppose the rest of the review should simply be spent ironing out those two statements.

I’ve read a number of the Very Short Introduction (VSI) books to this point, and each is fairly uneven from the others. Some are terrible and don’t deserve to be read. For instance, the one on French literature was a long, rambling mess that never went anywhere. The one on ‘nothing’ (literally) started well but then diverged into specialized knowledge that lost me at times. Others have been competent; the one on linguistics still stands out to me as one of my favorites, though it wasn’t especially great.

This is the first one that I’ve read that made me think early in the book, “Yes, this author understands what ‘VSI’ means.” It’s short, to the point, and doesn’t have any pretensions about what it is—it is simply an introduction to the philosophical concept of happiness. There are no frills, he proffers no excess in his subject matter, nor does he assume any prior knowledge. The book does its job well by getting out some basic definitions and then segues into classifications of theories of happiness. That’s it…because that’s all a VSI should be, which is to say 'I want the facts and I want them now.' Haybron has provided that for his audience, thereby allowing them to understand the gist of the subject matter. That’s perfect!

(On a side note, I mean the above sentiment to the point where I actually considered lowering all of my VSI scores by one. While I simply cannot give any VSI a perfect score—that is, after all, reserved for the very best—I feel like Haybron deserves the four-star rating while all the others are now diminished by his ability to meet the title of the series.)

Moving on, I can also say that this is the best book on happiness that I have read thus far. ‘Happiness’ as a concept has been something of a project for me the past six months, so I’ve been through a few books. Those range from the truly erudite longitudinal studies of human concepts of happiness in the West (Happiness: A History by Darrin McMahon) to the truly abysmal please-stop-talking-to-me-like-I’m-stupid because your-book-is-a-one-trick-pony-that-I-understood-on-page-five (Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson). All of these have specific projects in mind, and all of these accomplish those projects without simultaneously telling me more about how I might frame my own understanding of my own happiness. Though some are good at nudging me in the right direction, they seem to forget that there is still an element of human agency involved (The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubormirsky).

Haybron doesn’t make any of those mistakes. His sole goal is to give his audience the language necessary to understand happiness so that any of his readers can thereafter have a more productive conversation about that topic. There are thought-provoking ideas here, though nothing groundbreaking. Again, Haybron simply gives the audience some of the background from the western philosophical and scientific traditions that would be required to better understand the pursuit of happiness. He does this without interjecting his own ideas (at least not until the end where he provides a useful list of suggestions for a happier life) and without proselytizing. He earnestly wants his reader to understand the basics of happiness as an introduction to the subject, and he adheres to this tenet throughout the relatively short 127 pages of the body of his work. It’s a refreshing use of the VSI series; it’s a vital way to jumpstart his audience’s thinking.

I need to note two more things for anyone teetering based on this review:

-First, Haybron doesn’t interject his own theories, but he does occasionally pause to insert his own life. This too I found refreshing since it made it far more human than some of the other dry, dusty prose the series has come to embody in my mind. In one case Haybron admits he’s writing the book on a plane…but then ties that into his discussion. Again, it’s great.

-This book is not about how to be happy. It is about how to think about happiness. I want to make that very clear since I don��t want anyone to think this book is a magic pill that will help them find happiness. It won’t. Not at all. It will, however, help a reader to think carefully about what happiness should mean to him or her. To me, that is well worth the price of the book and the time a reader will spend with it.

[Nour Eldeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب جميل وبلور عدة نقاط في ذهني كنت قد بحثت عنها وقرأت ومنها:
لتحقيق الشعور بالسعادة أو الرضا عن الحياة أو الرفاه فإن ذلك يعتمد على الكثير من العوامل معظمها ليس لنا دخل فيه
ابتداءاً من الجينات والبيئة والمكان الذي نعيش فيه والأحداث والعصر الذي نختبره والتجارب التي يمر بها كل منا ومزاجنا الشخصي وصولاً في النهاية إلى التمتع بميزة أخذ القرارات ��الاختيار من عدة اختيارات.
مصطلحات مثل السعادة والشعور بالرضا عن الحياة أشياء نسبية جداً
فمن الممكن -على سبيل المثال- أن يعيش البعض حياة بائسة لكن عند سؤالهم يخبروك بأنهم راضيين سعداء وذلك ليس إلا لأنهم لا يعلمون أن هناك أفضل
وبالتالي مقاييس السعادة واستطلعات الرأي تصبح غير مفيدة في معظم الأحيان حيث أن تحليل نتائج هذه القياسات يعتمد على الكثير من العوامل المركبة والمتداخلة من كيفية رؤية الشخص المسؤول لحياته وكيف تشكلت هذه الرؤية وأيضاً على الجهة الأخرة رؤية الشخص السائل وتقييمه والمعيار الذي في ذهنه حين سأل السؤال وحلل الإجابة!

النصيحة الأقرب لقلبي هي أخذ أمر الشعور بالسعادة ببساطة. فربما يكون السعي نحو السعادة كغاية لا يثمر سوى مزيد من البؤس.
العيش حياة متوازنة من حيث العلاقات الاجتماعية والاهتمام بالصحة وشغل الوقت بأفعال وأنشطة لها معنى للشخص الذي يقوم بها والحصول على القدر الكافي من المال الذي يوفر حياة جيدة هي أشياء بديهية في معظمها ولكنها تعطي الشعور بالسعادة والرضا عن الحياة.

أعجبت جداً بالقبيلة البدائية -لا أذكر اسمها- والتي سأل أحد الباحثين أفرادها عن ما يمثله لهم مصطلح السعادة! فكان ردهم هو سؤال الباحث ماذا يعني بتلك الكلمة ؟

[Steven Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book, part of the prereading for a class I am taking this semester.

The book is _Happiness: A Very Short Introduction_, by Daniel Haybron (and the class, BTW, is “Topics in Philosophy of Religion: Death, Happiness, and Immortality”).

Like other authors writing on a professional, academic level about happiness, such as Martha Nussbaum and Susan Wolf, here Haybron also talks a lot about the importance of meaning for one’s happiness.

(Wolf, for example, has the saying, which summarizes her position, that “Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness.” By this she means that in our world, some things are better – are more worthwhile – than others, and meaning arises when we as subjects discover or develop affinities for these more worthwhile things, and engage with them in a positive way. And Nussbaum, for example, is well known for her “capabilities approach” in which she delineates a relatively objective list of capabilities important for happiness and well-being.)

Unlike those other authors, however, Haybron steers away from the notion of an objective-list theory of happiness. Haybron does not develop an objective-list notion of happiness, but instead focuses on happiness as a state of mind, and emotional evaluation of your life. He delineates three aspects of happiness:

1) Attunement
This is being able to let your defenses down, make yourself fully at home in your life, as opposed to taking up a defensive stance.

2) Engagement
This involves an assessment of whether it is worth investing effort in your activities, versus withdrawing or disengaging from them.

3) Endorsements
These are emotional states that signify that your life is good, like joy.

He also reviews what researchers have learned about the sources of happiness, summarized as SOARS: “Security,” including material security, social security, project security, and time security, “Outlook,” including positivity, acceptance, caring for others, and motivation, “Autonomy,” “Relationships,” and “ Skilled and meaningful activity.”

Happiness for Haybron is part, but not the whole, of a good life, which also includes well-being, virtue, and meaning, of course, and he discusses all these, as well as hedonism, desire theories, and list theories (like Nussbaum’s).

Happiness is not, however, a right. “The mistaken assertion of a right to be happy is an example of a broader error,” he says, “namely a belief in cosmic entitlements.” We call people, he says, who overexert their perceived rights (to be happy themselves at whatever cost to those around them), assholes: “One should not be an asshole in the pursuit of happiness” (pp. 95-97).

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[عدنان العبار · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are little subjects which have the ability to pique everyone's curiosity and captures everyone's interests, given our many differences. Human happiness is definitely one of those little subjects, along with death, cosmology, and the existence of God. This book is written very elegantly and presented with rigor and clarity of thought.

The book presents many aspects that are very important to any reader on happiness: First, it attempts to define what happiness is, then explores what other terms we might consider to be connected to happiness, and whether happiness or these other parameters are measurable (and if so, how?), and it finally talks about values, tastes, experiences that might bring about happiness and in the end if we can be happy; whether it was possible to choose that or if it was genetically predetermined.

The book is a journey of its own. It's extremely enjoyable, very helpful, playful at times and fun, and suggestive of solutions to unhappiness. I am reading this to complement our book club's pick for this week, Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. I enjoyed this book a lot, and I hope you consider it. I have a dream, to one day write a book on happiness, as a study of Aristotelian and Augustinian conceptions of happiness. This book will aid me in that, and so I will definitely revisit it.

[حنين الصعيدي · Rating 4 out of 5]

عند قراءتي للعنوان، لم أتردد بالبدء بقراءته على الفور؛ رغم أنني لم أقرأ عنه أو عن كاتبه شيءً من قبل. فإن الخوض في السعادة بتحليلها من الناحية العلمية يعتبر أمراً مشجعاً ومحمساً على القراءة. وثد صدق حدسي.

بعد أن استعرض الكاتب بعض الإحصائيات التي تناولت السعادة في بعض الشعوب والقبائل محاولاً تحليلها باقتضابٍ شديد، انتقل محاولاً شرح مفهوم السعادة وما تعنيه على وجه الدقة بعيداً عن المفهم المطاطي للكلمة المتعارف عليه بين الناس.

تناولت فصول الكتاب أفككاراً كثيرةً للغاية، لعل أهمها يكمن في تبيان الفرق بين السعادة والرضا، فعالية مقاييس السعادة، تعداد وشرح مصادر السعادة من وجهات نظر مختلفة، شرح ارتباط السعادة بالرفاه والأخلاق بعد تعريفٍ مفصلٍ لكلٍ منهما، توضيح علاقة السعادة بالمعنيى وتوضيح هذا الأخير، كما تناول الكتاب العلاقة والاختلاف بين السعادة والحياة الجيدة.

رغم اعتبار الكتاب قصيراً نسبياً، إلا أنه مكدس بالمعلومات والنظريات، الأمر الذي جعل قراءته تحتاج لقدر عالي من التركيز، كون الأفكار المذكورة فيه كانت على قدر كبير من التسارع والتلاحق، لذلك أنصح بقراءته على مراحل وعدم الاغترار بعدد الصفحات القصير لمن أراد الحصول على الفائدة القصوى منه.

لغة الكتاب بسيطة، إذ أنه موجه للعامة ويهدف الكاتب من خلاله لجعل السعادة أقرب للفهم وبعيدةً عن الشوائب والخلط بينها وبن مفاهيم أخرى قد تبدو قريبةً منها رغم كونها ليست كذلك.

اكلتاب مفيد ودسم على حدٍ سواء. أنصح به لمن يريد الاستزادة ومعرفة المزيد عن السعادة.

[Cricci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo è uno di quei libri che avevo già iniziato a leggere anni fa, ma avevo abbandonato dopo poche pagine…
Se non è il momento giusto non si riuscirà a leggere, ma qualche giorno fa mi sono ricordata di averlo in libreria e appena preso in mano avevo ero già arrivata a metà senza nemmeno accorgermene.
Se stai attraversando un momento della tua vita pieno di scelte e incertezze, oppure stai prendendo decisioni importanti e sei sicuro di fare la cosa giusta, con questo libro inizierai a vedere tutto sotto sopra. Ti porterà a riflettere realmente su ogni singola mossa che farai.
Dopo averlo letto (e divorato) posso dire che sono “felice” di averlo fatto in questo tempo della mia vita. Era il momento giusto, il momento di capire la felicità.

[Mandy Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is only fitting that this was the first book I read in full this year, the year of health. This discussion on happiness, because a discussion with the reader is really what this is, is a really good one for people struggling with whether they are happy or not. Defining happiness is a difficult task, and I am not sure I believe he fully reached a definition; however, his thoughts, stories, and references were spot on in engaging my mind in how to approach the life I already have to make it better without even making changes about my physical surroundings.
I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in philosophy and/or discussions about defining life and how we should live.

[Ka'tje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy I read "Happiness" :-), my first in the VSI series.

- Good material to reflect upon and to understand the concept;

- A down-to-earth, neutral, open-minded summary of the main theories in the analysis of happiness, while the author adds his own notes/views to the existing literature;

- Last but not least: the author writes with humor. Definitely can appreciate this aspect, as I think too many authors take it often too seriously when doing non-fiction.

Recommended.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be the best of the VSI books that I’ve read. It’s very reader-friendly and avoids traps of jargon or academic abstruseness. The author, Daniel Haybron, keeps himself in the background and introduces different theories of happiness without a hundred caveats. I read it in one sitting. Recommended.

[Tyler Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does exactly what it is supposed to in terms of giving an introduction to a field of thought. Happiness is a topic of growing importance and interest for me as I work with more and more people who find something lacking in their lives in spite of every reason for contentment. Haybron does a great job setting the stage for further study. But further study is necessary.

[Keilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this short read from Dan Haybron. His examples were very tangible and thought he was mostly neutral in his presentation of alternative theories. While this is a book on happiness, he did sneak in some meaning of life in the center chapters. Especially ending with relationships to Money, Relationships, and other aspects of life - again, a nice quick read!

[Bishoy El kess maximous · Rating 4 out of 5]

سمعته على تطبيق "كتاب صوتي". كان عندي صعوبة في فهم بعض الجمل مش متأكد إذا كان دا سببه سوء في الترجمة ولا القارئة على التطبيق هي اللي ماكانتش بتفصل بين الجمل كويس.
كتاب جميل وممتع في إنه بيناقش أفكار كتير بخصوص السعادة بشكل موضوعي. لكن الترابط و التسلسل بين الأفكار ضعيف جدا

[Yameen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful & nuanced understanding of different aspects related to such an important subject we all are chasing after. A definite must-read for any person irrespective of their background or culture.

[Iryna Krepchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started like a really good read, with lots of new thoughts and ideas, but from page 70 or so things started going down the hill. I felt as if the author was in a hurry to finish the book and didn't put much time and effort into thinking things through.