Happiness: This course explores the makings of deep, lasting happiness. It studies joy, pleasure, and wellbeing, focusing on contemporary and classical philosophical works and noting debates in cognate fields such as psychology, religious studies, and sociology.
If someone asks you why you are studying a specific subject or why you picked a certain meal for lunch, or why you always take a particular route home, you might reply that you prefer it or that you want to try something new, or that you want to live up to your parents’ expectations, or that you didn’t give it much thought. But, if the person presses you further on why you made this choice, your answer may amount to something like: You wish to be happy.
Happiness is a bit like the Sun: it is vital, but hard to look at directly. Some societies, like the United States, have made the pursuit of happiness part of their national identity: ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’. Some societies, such as Bhutan, have made the amount of happiness per capita a point of national pride. Other societies turn away from happiness and view it as a superficial or gullible thing to value. Some of us may feel frightened of happiness or may feel that we don’t deserve happiness. Many of us would like to be happier or even just a little less unhappy. And, many of us would like to make others happy, but have no idea where to start.
Happiness and related ideas lie at the heart of many theories in moral philosophy, including theories of a good life, theories of what to value, and theories of right and wrong action. This course invites students a) to reflect on the nature and value of happiness and related ideas such as pleasure, wellbeing, joy, flourishing and the good, and b) to explore through their own reflections, experiences, reading, and guided in-class and take-home practices the different attitudes, mindsets, and commitments that various intellectual traditions identify as parts of deep, lasting wellbeing. The course will study contemporary and classical philosophical writings and will refer to findings in cognate fields such as positive psychology, social neuroscience, religious studies, and sociology on the nature of happiness and credible ways to cultivate it. Students will be encouraged to try out new ways of thinking about happiness and wellbeing, to analyse both the philosophical literature and their own perceptions of what it means to be truly happy, and to put some of these ideas into practice.