Last update: February 18, 2016
Happiness is one of the hardest words to define. Mystical happiness has nothing to do with the happiness of the man of power or that of ordinary people.
In everyday life we ​​encounter different definitions of happiness, the same also applies to philosophy.
Below, we will tell you about 5 philosophers who have tried to give a definition of happiness.
Aristotle and metaphysical happiness
For Aristotle, the most important of the metaphysical philosophers, happiness is the highest aspiration of all human beings. The way to reach it, according to his point of view, is virtue. That is to say, if the highest virtues are cultivated, happiness will be achieved.
More than a concrete state, Aristotle believes that it is a way of life. The characteristic of this lifestyle is to train and enhance the best qualities that every human being possesses.
It is also necessary to cultivate prudence of character and have a good "daimon", that is, good luck or luck, to reach full happiness.. For this reason, Aristotle's theses on happiness are known as “eudaimonia”.
Aristotle developed the philosophical basis on which the Christian church was built. This is why there are some similarities between Aristotle's thought and the principles of the Judeo-Christian religions.
Epicurus and hedonistic happiness
Epicurus was a Greek philosopher in great contradiction with the metaphysicians. The Greek philosopher, in fact, did not believe that happiness came only from the spiritual world, but that it also had to do with the earthly dimension.
In fact, he founded the "School of Happiness" and came to very interesting conclusions.
He postulated the principle that balance and temperance result in happiness. This concept is contained in one of his famous quotations: "Nothing is enough for those who do not have enough"
He thought that love had little to do with happiness, but friendship did. Furthermore, he was convinced that one must not work to obtain goods, but that one must do it for the sake of what one does.
Nietzsche and the criticism of happiness
Nietzsche thought that living quietly and without worries was a desire of mediocre people, who do not place great value on life.
Nietzsche opposes the concept of "well-being" to that of happiness. Wellness means "feeling good", thanks to favorable circumstances or good luck. However, it is an ephemeral condition that can end at any time. Well-being is like an "ideal state of laziness", that is, without worries, without jolts.
Happiness, on the other hand, is a life force, a spirit that fights against any obstacle that limits freedom and self-affirmation.
Being happy, then, means being able to feel life force through overcoming adversity and creating original models of life.
José Ortega y Gasset and happiness as a confluence
According to Ortega y Gasset, happiness is achieved when the "projected life" and the "actual life" coincide, that is, when there is a correspondence between what we want to be and what we actually are.
This philosopher states:
“If we ask ourselves what the ideal spiritual state called happiness consists of, we will easily find a first answer: happiness is finding something that fully satisfies us.
This answer, however, only pushes us to ask ourselves what this subjective state of full satisfaction is. We will also ask ourselves what objective conditions something must have to be able to satisfy us “.
Thus, all human beings have the potential and the desire to be happy. This means that each of us defines which realities can lead to happiness. If we can build these realities, then we will be happy.
Slavoj Zizek and happiness as a paradox
This philosopher believes that happiness is a matter of opinion and not of truth. He sees it as the product of capitalist values, which implicitly promise eternal satisfaction through consumption.
However, there is dissatisfaction in humans, because they don't really know what they want.
Anyone who believes that having or obtaining something (buying something, changing status, etc.) can lead to happiness, in reality, unwittingly, wants to achieve something else and for this reason is always dissatisfied.
According to Slavoj Zizek, “the problem is that we don't know what we really want. What makes us happy is not having what we want, but dreaming about it ”.
