Happiness – schooled?
The Greek philosophers defined “happiness” as “the consequence of a deed and they drew two conclusions from this insight:
- first: if happiness consists of the fulfilling of human possibilities then there must be broadly applicable rules for attaining it.
- second: in this case we can “learn happiness” by following these rules.
They stressed rather the process and not one or the other event. A happy life meant for them a contented life a life lived in harmony with their values and tastes. The core elements of happiness were:
- inner peace and freedom (in the sense of not being disturbed by passions)
- physical and psychological independence
How did they achieve this state?
The ancient Greeks strongly believed in practice: “everything is practice” – they used to say. Philosophers ran in fact “happiness schools” to train the mind of their students. They believed that insight helped only when people were trained to apply it. Their goal was to form the student’s character so that he would live a happier and more balanced life. The key was the purposeful repetition of certain experiences.
The central thought of classical philosophy about happiness is today still valid and corroborated by modern science, especially neurobiology: positive feelings are not a matter of destiny. We can and must strive for them.
Do not confuse this concept of happiness with the modern – and unrealistic – idea interpreting it as a pleasure without a history and without costs.
You can find the results of modern scientific research on happiness in Stefan Klein’s book: The science of happiness. http://www.stefanklein.info/en/index_en.html
See also: http://www.gluecksformel.de/links.html – lots of relevant links, most of them in German but some also in English
Greenblatt on the Epicurean Lucretius and the Epicurean Jefferson
Stephen Greenblatt, the author of “The Swerve” talking about the Epicurean attitude to pleasure, about Lucretius’s poem and about the Epicurean Thomas Jefferson in an interview with Charlie Rose:
the full interview (23 min): http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11977
a 5 minutes cut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOv4KPkUDY
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