The happiness equation

Abstract

Issues of definition aside, most of us agree that obtaining happiness isn’t easy. When I ask people if they’re happy, I often get evasive and conflicting responses. Many, though, describe their lives as distinctly unhappy. Philosophers, rarely the cheerleaders of the world, are among this cohort. Henry Thoreau believed that “most men live lives of quiet desperation,” while Jean de la Bruyère claimed that “most men spend the best part of their lives in making their remaining years unhappy.” The lexicographer Samuel Johnson was no optimist either, remarking that “human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.” The psychiatrist Thomas Szasz was even gloomier, alleging that “happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.” The filmmaker and writer Woody Allen dresses his dark outlook in lighter colors: “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”