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Jaison Chisnell Pursuing Happiness PBL

Jaison Sood Chisnell

4 years ago

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I believe the pursuit of happiness is all based off of money. My mother said that it;s the definition of life and it's what people work for their entire lives. People spend countless hours to make a "sufficient salary" in their attempt to reach what in their mind, is happiness. People associate being happy with a good lifestyle, winning the lottery or having enough money to do what they want. My sister who is younger than I am says that being happy is being satisfied with your job, your house, your family, nut all of these things are based off of money. Many people don't say it;s money cause it comes off in a "bad" way but every dream or goal to achieve happiness has to somehow and someway be connected with money.

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My Dad believes that the pursuit of happiness is work until you achieve something that you can be proud of for the rest of your life.
My mom believes that the pursuit of happiness is "the definition of life" and that it is what every person spends their life doing.
My sister believes that the pursuit of happiness if being happy with your life and being satisfied with what you have accomplished over your lifetime.

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Each character in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has or does something that makes them happy. Gatsby himself has his goal of winning Daisy's love, Daisy has her love for Gatsby, Tom has Myrtle and having control, Myrtle has Tom and his riches, Nick has writing in his journal, and Jordan has her successful golfing career.

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Happy- the feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

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Welcome to Happy's documentation! - Happy documentation

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According to the survey I posted, the majority of high schools kids, ages 14-18, say that family, friends and sports are what makes them happy the most.

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What the pursuit of happiness means to me is to achieve the goals and challenges you have been striving for and working hard for. My greatest goals I would like to achieve is to get into a good college, become a high ranking position in a big company, move to California and then buy a nice house in the hills.

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One of the most famous lines in the Declaration of Independence is "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". The article below explains what the founding fathers meant.

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The right to "the pursuit of happiness" affirmed in the Declaration of Independence is taken these days to affirm a right to chase after whatever makes one subjectively happy. Further, the Declaration doesn't guarantee the right to happiness, the thought usually goes, but only the right to pursue what makes you happy. But this reading of the Declaration's "pursuit of happiness" is wrong on both scores.

"Happiness" in the public discourse of the time often did not simply refer to a subjective emotional state. It meant prosperity or, perhaps better, well-being in the broader sense. It included the right to meet physical needs, but it also included a significant moral and religious dimension. In correspondence between James Madison and James Monroe in 1786, Madison notes that "happiness" cannot simply be identified with meeting people's interests, but includes a higher reference:

There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation, than the current one that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong. Taking the word "interest" as synonymous with "ultimate happiness," in which sense it is qualified with every necessary moral ingredient, the proposition is no doubt true. But taking it in its popular sense, as referring to the immediate augmentation of property and wealth, nothing can be more false.

The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 affirms that "the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality, and . . . these cannot be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of the public worship of God and of public instructions in piety, religion and morality."

So, too, Article 3 of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 affirms that "religion, morality, and knowledge" are "essential to the happiness of mankind."

Affirmations of these kinds could be multiplied many times from documents and speeches of the time. The upshot is that "happiness" in the Declaration should be understood centrally as a sort of virtuous felicity, perhaps in the sense of Greek eudaimonia, although one refined by Christian sensibilities.

Arthur Schlesinger Sr. observed in an obscure book chapter that "pursuit" has a particular meaning at the time of the Declaration. While less employed today, this secondary meeting nonetheless remains in use when referring, for example, to the pursuit of medicine, or the pursuit of lawyering, etc. In this sense "pursuit" means occupation or practice. We might even think of it in the sense of vocation.

So "the pursuit of happiness" means something like occupying one's life with the activities that provide for overall wellbeing. This certainly includes a right to material things, but it goes beyond that to include humanity's spiritual and moral condition.

That the "pursuit of happiness" is an inalienable right-one that cannot be given away-and that governments have been tasked to protect it suggests a relationship between government and humanity's moral ends in tension, if not in outright contradiction, with modern liberalism. It seems to assume an objective moral order from which a person may not alienate himself.

In the theory of the Declaration, liberty is not the entire universe of the American project. Liberty is encapsulated within equally significant commitments to life and to happiness. Life and happiness give form and shape to the liberty that the Declaration affirms.

All of this may seem like a quaint historical observation. And perhaps it is no more than that. Nonetheless, we Americans have a continuing habit of taking recourse to the Declaration to understand ourselves and our government.

Beyond that, there may be a more practical constitutional import in the not-too-distant future. To understand what this may be requires a bit of background. Throughout the 20th Century, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution increasingly became a central channel through which national constitutional principles were applied to the U.S. states. After defining citizenship (and so effectively overturning the Dred Scott decision), the first section of the Amendment then guarantees that no state shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, requires that no state deprive persons of life, liberty or property without due process of law, and prohibits states from denying to any person the equal protection of the laws.

The 14th Amendment's language of "privileges or immunities" is borrowed from Section 4 of the Constitution which states that "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." While the meaning of the Section 4 privileges and immunities clause is not transparent, that the constitutional framers lifted the language form Article 4 of the Articles of Confederation seems to illuminates its meaning: to prohibits states from discriminating in favor of their own citizens and against citizens of other states in regards to certain basic or fundamental rights.

When the 14th Amendment was proposed and ratified after the Civil War, the purpose of the Privileges or Immunities clause in that Amendment seemed clear to many observers: it sought to apply the set of basic or fundamental rights protected by the Article IV Privileges and Immunities clause internally to the states. It would authorize the organs of the national government to protect citizens of a state from deprivations of fundamental rights by their own state government.

This "obvious" purpose of the 14th Amendment Privileges or Immunities Clause, however, was effectively killed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Slaughterhouse Cases in 1872. In declining to apply the clause to a group of Louisiana butchers, the Court limited the reach of the clause to a modest set of rights. This decision arguably distorted the development of Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence up through today. In particular, the decision seemed to have forced the Court to draw on the Amendment's "due process" clause to protect rights more naturally protected as "privileges or immunities."

All this may be interesting enough, but what does it have to do with "happiness" in the Declaration?

The increased popularity and respectability of textualist approaches to interpreting the Constitution has prompted growing interest in revivifying the privileges or immunities clause of the 14th Amendment. There is more at stake in this than an honest of reading the Amendment. The long tradition construing the privileges and immunities clause in Article IV of the Constitution would inform how we understand the 14th Amendment's privileges and immunities clause. It is this tradition that draws on the Declaration's verbiage to understand Article IV privileges and immunities guarantees and, hence, could be expected to inform how judges understand the 14th Amendment's privileges or immunities clause.

In a pivotal 1823 case construing the Section 4 privileges and immunities clause, Justice Bushrod Washington (nephew to George Washington) wrote:

The inquiry is what are the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States? We feel no hesitation in confining these expressions to those privileges and immunities which are fundamental; which belong of right to the citizens of all free governments, and which have at all times been enjoyed by citizens of the several States which compose this Union, from the time of their becoming free, independent, and sovereign. What these fundamental principles are it would be more tedious than difficult to enumerate. They may all, however, be comprehended under the following general heads: protection by the government, with the right to acquire and possess property of every kind and to pursue and obtain happiness and safety, subject, nevertheless, to such restraints as the government may prescribe for the general good of the whole.

The phrase, "happiness and safety," derives from the Declaration. It affirms that whenever a government becomes destructive of inalienable rights, it is the people's right to create a new government with principles and power formed "as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." So the type of happiness that governments are formed "to effect" at this point in the text is the same "pursuit of happiness" that governments are instituted to secure two sentences earlier in the Declaration.

If "happiness" in the Declaration necessarily assumes the existence of an objective moral order, then its co-equal relationship to "liberty" is central to understanding liberty, and one little explored in modern jurisprudence. The understanding that life and happiness encapsulate liberty stands in obvious tension with the modern itch to universalize liberty as the sole dimension of the American constitutional project. Even given the ambiguity of the text, a privileges or immunities clause that draws on the Declaration's theory of happiness would make it problematic for judges to affirm blandly, as the plurality did in the 1991 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that "the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

Understanding the moral and religious overtones of the Declaration's "pursuit of happiness," as well as its application to physical sustenance, has potentially significant implications for understanding constitutional guarantees, as well as for understanding the nature of the American project more generally.

James R. Rogers is department head and associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University. He leads the "New Man" prison ministry at the Hamilton Unit in Bryan, Texas, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

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The Meaning of "the Pursuit of Happiness" | James R. Rogers

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The right to "the pursuit of happiness" affirmed in the Declaration of Independence is taken these days to affirm a right to chase after whatever makes one subjectively happy. Further, the Declaration doesn't guarantee the right to happiness, the thought usually goes, but only the right to pursue what makes you happy.

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This Monk gives a Ted Talk about trends throughout our entire lifetime that show we constantly strive for happiness.

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TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript: What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.

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People can show that they are happy many ways: smiling, crying, talking, laughing, etc.

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There are four types of happiness, each more increasingly happy than the other.

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4 levels of happiness

We all strive for happiness. According to Aristotle it is the ONLY thing we want for it's own sake. Everything else we do is in order to be happy - in one way or another.

But happiness is not a simple concept. Aristotle distinguished between four different levels of happiness.

Happiness level 1: Laetus. Happiness from material objects

Happiness at the first level is simply about sensual gratification based on things / something external. This kind of happiness can be intense but is short-lived.

People focusing exclusively on level 1 risk to hit a crisis where life seems shallow and without meaning. In other words there is a limit to the pleasure you get from a new car, a holiday, a nice meal etc. if this is the ONLY source of happiness. As long as you don't forget the other levels there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the pleasures of level 1 that life can provide!

Happiness level 2: Felix. Ego gratification. Happiness from comparison: being better, more admired than others etc.

You feel this type of happiness when you for example win in sports or get a promotion.

Everyone likes admiration and winning to some extent but people varies a lot regarding how strong their competitive nature is. For some it's everything, for others it's just a very minor and very short lived pleasure.

Happiness from continuous comparison with other people is unstable because no one (or very few people) can win in all domains of life all the time. In case of failure, focusing too much on this level can lead to frustrations and a sense of worthlessness.

Excessive focus on comparison and self-promotion also risk to alienate the people around you and can lead to self-absorption, jealousy, cynicism, and the oppression of others.

Happiness level 3: Beatitudo. The happiness from doing good for others and making the world a better place.

This level of happiness is based on the human desire for connection, goodness, meaning, compassion, friendship and unity. Some has summed it up as simply: "Love!"

As this level we move away from ourselves to focus on the well-being of others. In essence our own happiness depends also on the happiness of others.

Level 3 happiness is more lasting and, for most people, provides a deeper feeling of meaning than level 1 and 2.

The limits of level 3 happiness can be said to be human imperfections. Nobody is perfect and human relationships involve disappointment, jealousy, and the risk to be hurt. That's part of life.

Happiness level 4: Sublime Beatitudo. Ultimate, perfect happiness

Level 4 happiness is the most difficult to describe. It involves a search for fullness and perfection. It has to do with finding the right balance between the other levels... and then some.

Psychologists have labelled this desire for ultimate happiness a call for connection to the larger universe or a sort of transcendence.

Some fulfill this desire through spirituality or religion, others through philosophy, art, or scientific endeavours to find answers to some of the big questions of life, human existence and the universe. There's no definitive or universal answer. You have to find your own calling!

Alternative classifications of the different types of happiness

In his book "Happiness: The Science Behind your Smile" Daniel Nettle describes three levels of happiness.

In his book "Flourish" Martin Seligman single out five elements of "well-being".
References

1. "WHAT IS MAN?" The Four Levels of Happiness

2. Spitzercenter: The four levels defined

3. The Four Levels of Happiness

Get the Book today

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Aristotle believed there are four levels of happiness that humans strive for

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We all strive for happiness. According to Aristotle it is the ONLY thing we want for it's own sake. Everything else we do is in order to be happy - in one way or another. But happiness is not a simple concept. Aristotle distinguished between four different levels of happiness.

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What makes me happy is taking W's in Fortnite and playing soccer not only competitively, but with friends as well.

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Scientific studies show how different aspects of life make people happy such as their social life or lifestyle. The article suggests winning the lottery or buying thins is what makes people happy because of the satisfaction.

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Americans are proud to claim certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's interesting to note that the Founding Fathers, in all their wisdom, didn't claim happiness as a right, only its pursuit. Since those three concepts were linked in 1776, public health has improved and our freedom to live life as we see fit has increased. The pursuit of happiness continues, largely because the object of our pursuit is so much more elusive than life or liberty.

We all want happiness, but finding it isn't the easiest venture. Many of us conceive of it as the end-product of material wealth, career goals and family harmony. With that in mind, we seek out the things we believe will deliver it: better cars, nicer houses and bigger paychecks. Others of us work to put together a large network of friends or find a spouse.

When we're not happy with what we have, we believe we'll be happier when we get what we want. And we're right, we will be happier -- for a while. The problem is that once you get a large house with a swimming pool or get that promotion you've been chasing, you gradually get used to it. In fact, even when we're negatively affected by events, our immediate dissatisfaction also gradually fades, and in time we return to our pre-existing state of happiness (or unhappiness, whichever the case may be). Lottery winners and people who have been paralyzed report similar levels of happiness one year after the life-changing event. The initial change from the status quo produces short-term happiness or unhappiness, but as that becomes the day-to-day norm, happiness seems to level out [source: Wargo].

So what does make us happy? Is it a vibrant social life? Hearing the pitter-patter of little feet? Having a healthy lifestyle? Research has uncovered some surprising facts about what makes us happy, as well as the effect that happiness has on our lives.

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Americans are proud to claim certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's interesting to note that the Founding Fathers, in all their wisdom, didn't claim happiness as a right, only its pursuit. Since those three concepts were linked in 1776, public health has improved and our freedom to live life as we see fit has increased.

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The movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" featuring Will Smith is about how he went from rags to riches by becoming a stock-broker. This exemplifies that happiness is reached from attaining money.

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The Pursuit of Happyness - Google Search

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The Pursuit of Happyness is a 2006 American biographical drama film based on entrepreneur Chris Gardner's nearly one-year struggle being homeless. Directed by Gabriele Muccino, the film features Will Smith as Gardner, a homeless salesman. Smith's son Jaden Smith co-stars, making his film debut as Gardner's son, ...

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Graph from poll showing what makes the population happy

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Graph from poll showing what makes the population happy

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Buddhist explanation as to what makes people happy (Dalai Lama)

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What makes people happy? This question takes us to the heart of Buddhist economics-to our true self.

According to Buddhist economics, human nature is generous and altruistic, even as we also care about ourselves. Buddha taught that all people suffer from their own mental states, with feelings of discontent that come from desiring more and more. The Dalai Lama tells us that the feeling of not having enough and wanting more does not arise from the inherent desirability of the objects we are seeking, but from our own mental illusions. Buddha taught us how to end suffering by changing our states of mind, which translates into finding happiness through living a meaningful life.

In contrast to Buddhist economics, traditional economics holds that human nature is self-centered and that people care only about themselves as they push ahead to maximize their incomes and fancy lifestyles. According to this approach, buying and consuming-shopping for new shoes or playing a new video game-will make you happy. But soon you grow tired of the shoes, become disappointed with the game, and are off shopping again. In this endless cycle of desire, we are continuously left wanting more without ever finding lasting satisfaction

Traditional economics is based on hedonic happiness, or personal pleasure with the avoidance of pain, which focuses on pursuing money and buying things that make you feel good, at least in the moment. This short-lived happiness fits in well with our materialistic, goal-oriented economy. We chase our dreams of large wealth or great power or awesome sex or a major championship in the belief that they will bring us lasting happiness. Our purchase, or promotion, or love affair gives us a high. Yet that high soon wears off, and we are off chasing the next high.

Buddhist economics rests upon Aristotle's eudaimonic happiness, where happiness comes from self-realization, and living a worthy and moral life in service to others and the community. Aristotle teaches us, "He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life." He also says, "The contemplative life is happiest."[i]

The Dalai Lama warned that material gain is based on an erroneous assumption that what we buy "can by itself alone, provide us with all the satisfaction we require." He teaches us that "genuine happiness is characterized by inner peace and arises in the context of our relationships with others."[ii] In Buddhist economics, people strive to act ethically, which includes not harming others, even not ruining others' experiences or happiness. For example, you cause harm when your words or actions anger others, or make them (and yourself) feel desire or attachment, hatred or aggression, delusion, pride, and envy, or other mental poisons (called kleshas in Buddhism).

Finding inner happiness is one of the goals of Buddhist economics. Buddhism holds that we attain true freedom and peace only when we quit our mental habits of reacting with cravings for stimuli ("I've got to own that!" "Win this game!") or reacting with aversion ("I can't stand that!" "Defeat it!"). Instead, Buddhism says to quiet your mind: notice the beauty as you go for a walk, enjoy your food as you eat, connect more intimately with your friends.

Economists have demonstrated that people care about fairness, and want to be part of an organization or society that they consider just and fair.[iii] When psychologists study what makes people happy, they find that being kind to others makes people happier.[iv] People only need moments of compassion to build upon, because there is a positive feedback loop: when you do a kind deed (take your mom to lunch), you become happier, which makes it more likely you will do another kind act (help your neighbor carry in groceries). Kindness makes you happier, and happier people engage in more acts of kindness.[v]

Positive psychology demonstrates how well-being comes from experiencing a life that has meaning beyond merely feeling happy, which complements Buddhist economics. For example, positive psychologist Seligman teaches exercises to promote well-being based on engagement, good relationships, accomplishment and purpose.[vi]

In Buddhist economics, we discriminate between real happiness built upon a fully developed mindful life, and temporary happiness built around money and never-ending desires. In Buddhist economics, people do not aim to maximize their own income, because we want to ensure the happiness and well-being of all people.

Buddhist economics provides guidance both for restructuring the economy to place concerns about inequality, sustainability, and the human spirit at its center, and for leading meaningful, happy lives. "Practice compassion to be happy" replaces "More is better." "Maximize your own position" becomes "Everyone's well-being is connected."

Everyone deserves to be happy. Together we can live meaningful lives in a sustainable world!

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What makes people happy? This question takes us to the heart of Buddhist economics-to our true self. According to Buddhist economics, human nature is generous and altruistic, even as we also care about ourselves. Buddha taught that all people suffer from their own mental states, with feelings of discontent that come from desiring more and more.

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This video explains the events that make them people happy at certain times such as getting money or being with others.

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What Makes People Happy?

Think about a time when you felt particularly happy. What was it that made you happy? Was it because you had loved ones near? Because you were surrounded by a beautiful landscape? Because you had just accomplished something important? Or were you happy because you had lots of money?

'What makes you happy?' That seems like a simple question, but the truth is that many people don't know. Or, as psychologists have discovered, they think they know the answer, but really don't. Psychological research on happiness has identified several things people have in common: the types of things that make them happy, the things they think will make them happy, and the differences between the two.

Let's start by looking at what actually makes people happy. As you might expect, research shows that the best indicator of a person's happiness is the quality of his or her close relationships. Whether you're talking about romantic relationships, family dynamics, or simply close friendships, the happier you are in your social engagements, the happier you are in general.

Besides close relationships, there are two other things that predict happiness in people: having a job or hobby that they love and that challenges them and helping others through volunteer work, random acts of kindness or another type of prosocial behavior.

All three of these things make sense. I'll bet you weren't very surprised that solid relationships, engaging ways to spend your time and prosocial behavior all contribute to happiness.

But what about money? After all, if you don't have any money, it's very easy to believe that lots of money will make you happy. But that's not what psychologists have found.

Once your basic necessities are met, research has shown that additional money does not have a lot to do with happiness. So, while billionaires may fly on private jets to luxurious spas all over the world, it doesn't mean that they are any happier than people who drive 10-year-old cars and fly coach.

However, focusing on money and material things can make you profoundly unhappy. Research has shown that people who put a lot of emphasis on money and things are not as happy as non-materialistic people.

Affective Forecasting

The things that make people happy and unhappy seem pretty intuitive. But do people really understand what makes them happy?

Affective forecasting is the process of guessing how you will feel under specific future circumstances. Affect is just another word for emotion or mood. If I said that tomorrow you were going to lose your job, break up with your partner and fail a test, I'll bet you could pretty accurately predict what your emotional state would be.

But how effective are people at affective forecasting when it comes to happiness? Not very; research has shown that most people make consistent errors when guessing what will make them happy in the future.

Think about this: if you could either be a powerful CEO of a large company, making tons of money, or work part-time at a small company, barely making enough to cover your bills, which would you choose? Which do you think would make you happier?

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research on happiness: what makes people happy? - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Research on Happiness: What Makes People Happy? - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Think about a time when you felt particularly happy. What was it that made you happy? Was it because you had loved ones near? Because you were surrounded by a beautiful landscape? Because you had just accomplished something important? Or were you happy because you had lots of money?