What is happiness?

Started by Ho-Oh October 14th, 2009 10:12 PM
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Ho-Oh

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Sometimes it's hard to define what happiness is. What is happiness to you though... what makes you actually happy? Do you know what happiness is? Can you really say you've experienced happiness? Although this may seem like a strange question, it's kind of deep.

For me, I think happiness is achieved through feeling successful, whether that be in the form of having many friends or achieving something amazing. Although, despite that, I'm still not really happy in general, because there are underlying thoughts associated to this year. That means I'm just not that happy...

So yeah... what about you? XD;

Guillermo

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To some people it's physical items. To others, it's knowing they're loved.

As for me, it's knowing I'm cared about. Knowing I have people I can turn to when I'm down and stressed, knowing I have friends I can chat to whenever without being rejected, knowing what it's truly like to be loved. Stuff along those lines.

Being around people I care about makes me happier than anything else ever would.
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Bay

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I think happiness is just anyone's perspective. Basically, anything from people to objects to even thoughts about the world.

As for me, I'm mostly happy when I'm assured everything will be okay. I have anxiety problems, and that would lead me to be very unhappy. However, if I then get my head straight and realized there it's not the end of the world and there's endless opportunities out there, then I'll be happy and think about that for a while. :3
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Signomi

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This is a nice topic, so nice that it can most probably be delved upon on a more wider scale. That said, this is going off to Other Chat.

-Moved-

And to answer the question, I find that while happiness is subjective between all of us who go through various things in our lives, my idea of happiness is knowing that you are not alone, that you are able to commute with other people and that there are those close to you that love you for who you are as a person rather than any façade you intend to wear as a guise. Knowing you are accepted and have a mutual love for other people, and to have that returned to you in earnest, that is my idea of happiness. And I'm experiencing it all.

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Let's firstly ask ol' mother Wiki:
Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of philosophical, religious, psychological and bilogical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.
Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Happiness in this older sense was used to translate the Greek Eudemonia, and is still used in virtue ethnics.
Anyway, happiness to me is be with people. I hate being all alone at times when I am sober, and want to share my happiness around, too. They don't say that "sharing sadness is half the loss, sharing happiness is double the gain" just for laughs.

Eucliffe

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Enough said XD

Joking aside, I think happiness is a mental thing. You won't know you're happy until your conscience lets you know, so yeah.

That's my "in a nutshell" view of happiness.
SHOWTIME
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For me, happiness is essential in order for me to function. ^_^ Happiness is also something that I strive to make people feel every day. :3 Cheesy, I know. XD
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Spherical Ice

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In my opinion, happiness is a very vague subject, especially for myself.

I am 'happy' when I see my baby cousin; she spreads happiness and gives us a laugh, so I suppose that is happiness from knowing that you are loved, and being able to truly love others, and to be able to say it to their faces. I am also 'happy' when I am rewarded after working hard, such as receiving grades, or just a gift for something I have acheived, so I assume that falls under the 'Satisfaction' category of happiness. So I suppose happiness is a very vague topic, and defining it varies from person to person. A very good topic, Hakeen. It's got me interested.

Anyway, that is my two pennies...

-----

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twocows

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To some people it's physical items. To others, it's knowing they're loved. As for me, it's knowing I'm cared about.
You sound like Professor Oak.

Anyway, there should totally be a philosophy section. I love talking about this sort of stuff.

For me, I'd say happiness is being entertained and having a good time. Doing good things also brings me happiness, I guess.
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Corvus of the Black Night

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Definitions of happiness on the Web:
Now that's pretty interesting.

Anyhow, to me, it's simply being content. Knowing that everything (at the moment) is fine, and I can relax after a hard's day of carrying around a bag that's 2/5ths my body weight... Just that feeling in of itself is happiness.

Chibi-chan

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I'm actually taking a philosophy class on happiness in my college...it's more of a seminar really, but I feel like I'm an expert on what happiness is and how to obtain it (event though most people dislike the results because they do not conform with social norms)

Gonna post a tl;dr later. Wait for it!


/ / ////
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Happiness is only chemicals and signals in our brain that make us feel good. I don't like looking at it that way, but it's more likely than not the truth. However what triggers happiness, or this brain activity or whatever you would like to call it, is the real question. Some people make me happy. That is all. Other things like music and my team winning in the footy is good, but it's principally just relationships with other people.

Happiness is built on our expectations, I reckon. So say you've got the guy from Castaway on an island for three years without anybody else (Wilson the volleyball doesn't count, which also gets rid of the scene where he calls out "WILSON! WILSON! WILSON! WILSON" for like ten minutes straight) and he finds a fish. That's happiness. The same happiness I get from a relationship with other people. If you introduce another person to the Castaway island, suddenly catching a fish isn't that good anymore. One man falling in love and another man finding fifty dollars on the ground is the same happiness providing their views on what is important are different.

twocows

The not-so-black cat of ill omen

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One man falling in love and another man finding fifty dollars on the ground is the same happiness providing their views on what is important are different.
I disagree. I get happy from finding fifty (or five hundred or whatever) dollars, but it's a different kind of happiness from falling in love (if you will). They're very different feelings, even though I would put them both under the banner of "happy."
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Happiness is a feeling of accomplishment for the most part(to me); however, this can be stretched to many different subjects, which I will not state due to the fact that it can be stretched that far.

I'm actually taking a philosophy class on happiness in my college...it's more of a seminar really, but I feel like I'm an expert on what happiness is and how to obtain it (event though most people dislike the results because they do not conform with social norms)

Gonna post a tl;dr later. Wait for it!
You better gurl.
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Nice choice for a topic. ^^

I would say there is more than one type of happiness. Relief, sympathic happiness, and getting what you want are different types of happiness. There's also the sadistic pleasure I get from shanking some poor fool swatting flies or other things in that vein. Perhaps that's a quirk on my part, but still. Many types and realms of happiness. Most everything I think could be separated into main groups.

Material happiness
Social happiness
Accomplishment-based happiness
Religious and spiritual happiness

That should cover most, if not all major causes of happiness. Opinions?
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I disagree. I get happy from finding fifty (or five hundred or whatever) dollars, but it's a different kind of happiness from falling in love (if you will). They're very different feelings, even though I would put them both under the banner of "happy."
Oh definitely to the same person they would be different feelings, but different people with different sets of expectations are feeling the same sense of happiness. Like a kid being happy from finding out they're having McDonald's for dinner would be a lot different from an adult finding out they got McDonald's for dinner, although similar to a college student getting good grades or something. As in, for the same person the two examples I used would most definitely be different, but for people with different views it'd be a similar feeling.

twocows

The not-so-black cat of ill omen

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Oh definitely to the same person they would be different feelings, but different people with different sets of expectations are feeling the same sense of happiness. Like a kid being happy from finding out they're having McDonald's for dinner would be a lot different from an adult finding out they got McDonald's for dinner, although similar to a college student getting good grades or something. As in, for the same person the two examples I used would most definitely be different, but for people with different views it'd be a similar feeling.
I don't think so. One is a sense of accomplishment, the other is more along the lines of desire-fulfillment. The McDonald's to the kid might be similar to, say, getting $50 for nothing or something to the college student.
VNs are superior to anime, don't @ me