Happiness Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Happiness

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Zusammenfassung von Happiness

Name: Happiness
Rating: 4 (60 reviews)
Author: Darrin M. McMahon

Darrin M. McMahon

A History

4 (60 Bewertungen)

13 Min.

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What’s in it for me? Never take happiness for granted.

What are the most basic human emotions? Certainly, they include fear, love, hate and, of course, happiness. Such emotions are doubtless central to what it means to be human.

Well, not so fast. In fact, we didn’t always regard happiness as something natural or deserved – or even particularly human! Long ago, happiness was seen as something from the gods, and something it was definitely better not to mess around with.

We owe a debt to the great minds of history. They enabled our modern conception of happiness, transforming it from something mysterious and arbitrary into something to be pursued in our free time!

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why the Dark Ages really were that dark;
what Marx’s followers had to say about happiness; and
why droves of Americans sued the government after 1776.

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle didn’t fully agree on a definition of happiness.

We all have a say in our happiness, right? If you’re not feeling happy, go out and change that. Having a bad day? Eat some chocolate!

But people didn’t always think like this.

Let’s take a quick look at Athens. It wasn’t until after the city was democratized in the fifth century BCE that people began dreaming of a happy life that they could influence.

Prior to the downfall of the Persian Empire, people thought happiness was simply out of their power. Due to all the variables that brought utter misery at the time – poverty, inferior medical technology, political suppression and so on – happiness seemed better left to the gods.

After the Empire’s defeat, though, Athens began to blossom. As democracy progressed, people began experiencing a new freedom, and this inspired some to believe that they may have some influence over their happiness.

This is what Socrates and his student Plato believed – that, by using their ability to reason, people could have more control over their own lives, and thus their happiness. Socrates and Plato argued that it wasn’t just up to fate, luck or the gods. It was up to people themselves. To them, happiness was the ultimate goal, something far greater than mere earthly satisfaction. Longing for such transcendent happiness was a natural human tendency.

Aristotle, on the other hand, saw things a little differently. Like Socrates and Plato, he believed that humans were part of a higher order. But, unlike them, Aristotle held that we must look to the world; only there could we unearth our role as humans and the true role of human happiness.

This is represented beautifully in the famous fresco The School of Athens, by Raphael. Here we see Plato pointing toward the skies while Aristotle holds out his right hand, palm facing toward the earth.

As Europe entered the Renaissance, happiness became attainable for individuals.

The European Middle Ages are sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages because they sit between the “light” of the Roman Empire and the European Renaissance. But it was also dark because everyone was grumpy and miserable.

During the European Middle Ages, many people had a very negative outlook both on life and on the idea of happiness. Full of despair, they felt trapped in their own bodies, which frequently caused them pain.

By the end of the eighteenth century, happiness was commonly regarded as a human right.

People continued to embrace happiness throughout the Enlightenment. And at one point people were sure that the only way to conceive of happiness was to understand innocence and sin. Since it was believed that sinners would spend eternity burning in hell, people figured that innocence was the answer to a happy life. So what did they turn to in order to achieve happiness? The Garden of Eden.

The quest for Eden resulted in a work by biblical scholar Bishop Pierre Daniel Huet. In 1691, he wrote A Treatise on the Position of the Earthly Paradise, which claimed that the remains of Eden were to be found in Babylonia (modern day Iraq).

Sadness is okay – after all, it’s also a means to happiness.

Despite the belief that happiness was natural, notions of sadness and melancholy began cropping up by the end of the eighteenth century. People born during the Enlightenment were taught that they were supposed to be happy, but as the eighteenth century came to a close, people were also talking about a new, strange sadness.

This can be seen, for example, in Goethe’s 1774 publication The Sorrows of Young Werther. The book became popular among young people who were discontented with their lot in life, and Goethe’s work gained a following. People even dressed like Werther, sporting blue frock coats and vests.

In the young United States of America, people were responsible for their own happiness.

The American Dream – the freedom to work hard and create a wonderful life for yourself – drove countless people to set out in search of whatever bounty the land of opportunity had in store for them. But really, the American Dream does not guarantee happiness for everyone.

In fact, after the Declaration of Independence in 1776, hundreds of disgruntled people filed lawsuits against the American government or against other citizens.

Communists believed happiness would come from reigniting a sense of community.

Unfortunately for Benjamin Franklin, not everyone believed that the pursuit of happiness ought to be an individual endeavor.

Although Franklin’s liberal sentiment was famously shared by, among others, economist Adam Smith, people began to question the dominant concept of individuality, a cornerstone of capitalist societies.

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Worum geht es in Happiness?

In Happiness: A History (2006), we’re taken on a journey through history. From Ancient Greece, through the Dark Ages and up into the modern era, this journey uncovers how our conception of happiness has changed and evolved over time.

Bestes Zitat aus Happiness

The great goal of the century, it was expressed time and again. Does not everyone have the right to happiness?

—Darrin M. McMahon

Wer Happiness lesen sollte

History students
Philosophy students
Anyone interested in the cultural history of happiness

Über den Autor

Darrin M. McMahon is an American history professor. He is the author of Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity and Divine Fury: A History of Genius. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

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