It seems to me that everyone should spend at least some time developing a personal theory of happiness. There are very few things we do the motivation for which can not be reduced to seeking happiness. The better we understand what makes us happy, the better a chance we have of being happy. We frequently view happiness as a state we will achieve after some external event occurs. Sometimes we posit external events, or other people, as sources of our unhappiness. Far more likely, it seems to me, is that we become happier as we acknowledge the relatively infinite potential we have here and now to be happier. Because the human brain is not a truth-seeking device as such, we must examine the evidence with caution, as we attempt to discern what, in any given day, has made us most happy, and proceed from there.
One potential component of a personal theory of happiness is a willingness to do wrong. Hauser, in Moral Minds, supplies the following quote:
“What is termed sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colourless. Through its intensified assertion of individualism it saves us from monotony of type. In its rejection of the current notions about morality, it is one with the higher ethics.” –Oscar Wilde
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When you really contemplate wilde’s thoughts, it’s hard at first hand to disagree. But at some point, if you believe that ultimate happiness is shared with others, then you can figure that sin, (doing harm to others) will in time separate you from others. If being alone and self-driven is happiness, while following social norms is unhappiness, then Wilde is correct. Wilde lived the thoughts expressed here.
One potential problem your program would need to overcome is the fact that people typically don’t know what will make them happy.
Jeremy Bentham came up with a great number of synonyms for happiness, leaving a good number of others unstated, I would guess. I cannot disagree with you. Yet, there seems to be a fair amount of agreement that happiness means something we all know something about, and pretty much everyone would like a bit more of it. For this reason, it seems to me a worthwhile endeavor to figure out enough about happiness scientifically so that we can all come up with a personal approach to acquiring more of it.
Another component of a theory of happiness, in my view, is doing right by others. It seems that we enhance our well being by doing others a good turn, even where the likelihood of receiving a favor in return is remote or nonexistent. Why would this be? One explanation is that being wired for selflessness is a byproduct of evolved social species behavior. With regard to the search for personal happiness, the part we need to remember is to simply do something nice for others with some regularity.
I think that it is impossible to define happiness as being one fixed state of mind…because it is usually a result of certain circumstances in life… If, for example, you were deprived of food, your utmost happiness would be when you HAVE food… or when you are deprived of
water let’s say, and you drink… you will feel
happy as a result of the satisfaction which you got.
and so, it is always a feeling coming as a result of something else. Sometimes a person might simply be happy because there’s nothing to complain about and a person is just thankful to God for everything.