Living a Life of Virtue: The Pursuit of Happiness

Happiness in its many different forms and shades seems to be a lure for all activities of life forms. Human activities in the pursuit of happiness can produce unique status changes in our personal world and in the world around us.

The Pursuit of Happiness

by Jay K Ghosh

A person’s activities that produce positive or beneficial actions also produce “status changes,” and they seem to deliver happiness to the person that is doing them. These acts may also produce positive “status changes” for the greater world around them. Still, they may also be neutral or even negative for the world around them. Thus, our impulses and acts in the pursuit of happiness can be divided into two types:

1) Efforts that try to create overall positive status changes for both the self and the world around.

2) Efforts that try to create positive status changes for the self only, without any concern for their effect on the world everywhere.

The first type of activity creates status changes that normally bring true positive outcomes. These are the primary sources of happiness that create a strong foundation through activities that benefit both the self and the world. They also constitute the eudaimonic* sources of happiness as defined by modern psychology.

Generally, the activities in the pursuit of this type of happiness try to uplift not only the status of the person creating it but also the overall status of the greater world around. These positive changes can be produced by many different activities ranging from the extraordinary and dramatic to regular humdrum activities.

They can be physical and/or mental – nothing spectacular is needed. The most important thing is the attitude to create a positive ending in whatever we are doing.

The next step is to support this attitude with our efforts – whatever effort can be applied comfortably is adequate most of the time.

The second type of “status change,” makes up the secondary sources of happiness, commonly known as pleasures. These are basically the hedonistic sources of happiness, as classified by modern psychology

The focus of this type of happiness is self-gratification without much concern for the greater good or anything around us. They are generated from activities that produce effects that are beneficial only for the self. Still, they can be anything – positive, neutral, or negative for the world around.

The activity of eating an ice-cream, for example, or watching an interesting movie, delivers pleasure to us. Still, it may not generate any appreciable amount of positive status changes for the world around.

The hedonistic type of happiness can be further subdivided into two groups. Let’s name them:

a) hedonistic type A, and

b) hedonistic type B

The activities in the pursuit of hedonistic type A happiness produce status changes that are positive for the self and are also non-negative for the world around. That is, they are either positive or neutral for their immediate environment.

For example, eating an ice cream produces “status changes” for the self in positive sensation through the sense of taste. Still, it makes practically no status changes for the world around.

Participating in a group sports activity like playing soccer, for example, can be considered as another example of the pursuit of mild hedonistic type A happiness, where the acts produce positive status changes for the self, and also some possible positive status changes for the world around.

In similar situations where the hedonistic activity creates positive status changes for the greater world around, the act can be in the transition zone, from hedonistic to eudaimonic, depending on the purpose given to the effort.

The activities in the pursuit of hedonistic type B happiness produce status changes, which are favorable for the self, but harmful for the world. Here the overall status change tends to be negative. Sexual activities, for example, have the potential of producing tremendous amounts of hedonistic happiness. Still, depending on the circumstances, they can be either type A or type B.

Inappropriate, or non-consensual sexual behavior can provide hedonistic type B happiness for the self while creating significant negative status changes for the victims.

Business activities of corporations selling products that are harmful to the world while making monetary profits can also be considered as examples of hedonistic type B activities. In this vision, some people benefit at the expense of the greater world around them. Thus, selling fossil fuels by the oil and gas industry without any effort to control the resulting global warming may be considered an example of hedonistic type B behavior.

Thus, we can see a clear difference between the eudaimonic* and the hedonistic types of happiness – especially between the eudaimonic and the hedonistic type B.

If we analyze the destructive activities posing the most serious threats to our future survival, we are able to see that most of them have been created by our actions to pursue hedonistic type B happiness. But that doesn’t mean we have to skip all the hedonistic pleasures – the pleasures of our favorite food or the beautiful music, etc. make life so rewarding. But, possibly, it will be wiser to avoid the hedonistic type B as much as possible for the obvious reasons. Perhaps, here lies the clue to solving some of our most pressing problems related to our evolution and our survival in the far future.

*Eudaimonic well-being refers to the subjective experiences associated with eudaimonia or living a life of virtue in the pursuit of human excellence.

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About the Author

Jay K Ghosh emigrated to the USA from India in 1968. He has a couple of master’s Degrees in science and Engineering. Though his profession has been in Technology, his real passion has been in Philosophy and Spirituality.