Thesis statement about happiness

Happiness is not reduced to the emotional well-being of an organism adapted to its environment. Man must reflect to build his life according to values. He can not neglect his freedom, or his responsibility before the voluntary commitment of his action. Being happy means that man is capable of achieving a balance that overcomes his contradictions and conflicts. If man wants to be happy, he must not forget that happiness is the result of a conquest first over himself and then over a world in which he must take into account not only natural forces, but also other men.

Statements about happiness: the notion of issue

The idea of ​​salvation is a new fashion according to the happiness thesis. We live in a time of great desolation. Loneliness is perceived in the bosom of the considerable cacophony of sciences and techniques that do not fulfill some of our demands: those of happiness, on the one hand, that is, earthly salvation; those of the future, on the other hand, that is, the salvation of the soul.

Is there eternal happiness thesis? And if there is, would we be entitled to it? Here are two questions to which the idea of ​​salvation responds. The idea of ​​salvation was born at the beginning of the Middle Ages: it is about finding again the Garden of Eden, the world before the original sin of which the Bible speaks, the conversation alone with God, which seeks eternal happiness. St. Augustine has theorized a lot about the notion of salvation and his words are surprisingly topical. For a long time Agustín traveled away from God, mainly in the sect of the Manichaeans, for whom there was good on the one hand and evil on the other. The question that arises is the following one: where to find the strength to save oneself when one is a sinner and one lives in an inner world where one is lost and all is abandoned to evil? In line with happiness essay, St. Augustine believes that man’s freedom can not save him, since man is, by nature, separated from God since the original fall. His conception of salvation then leads him to say:

“Look as if you have to find, and when you have found, keep looking.”

Such is salvation, in the Middle Ages as it is in our age: always seek for yourself to be at the disposition of the extraordinary beyond to which you aspire. This conception of salvation is that of a mystic agnostic, a bit like Adso de Melk, the narrator of The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, who ends up losing himself in the divinity, where the pious soul succumbs.

Happiness definition essay: general conditions of happiness

It is easy to list the general conditions of happiness:

  • good health
  • love
  • freedom
  • economic comfort, etc.

However, the agreement is no longer unanimous: although these conditions are more or less indispensable, they can all be presented without us being happy; that is, when trying to define what happiness is, these conditions are necessary but not sufficient. It is obvious that these general conditions are necessary. If a man lives in physical and moral misery, if his freedom and his dignity as a human being are only words, it is even indecent to speak of happiness. But, thesis about happiness is always beyond these general conditions, therefore, they are not enough; happiness is linked to a personal appreciation, a subjective appreciation that varies according to the social condition, the degree of culture, age, etc., and this is the reason why it can be discussed. To say that our idea of ​​happiness has a subjective element does not imply that each of us invents his ideal of happiness: this ideal is constructed according to the forms and criteria that are provided by culture and society: the conception of happiness varies according to the time and the type of society.

It can be noted, following R. Benedict thesis statement on happiness (Échantillos de civilization), two fundamental trends in societies, an Apollonian and another Dionysian. The Apollonian societies see happiness as a lasting state, a balance that is the result of the harmonious meeting of several values ​​that define what is good, beautiful and useful; a state of well-being of the spirit and the body, linked to the appeasement of internal conflicts, to the conquest of a personal balance. Dionysian societies, on the other hand, seek a state of wild happiness, pleasures as diverse as numerous. In the Dionysian societies the pleasures do not seek a definite satiety, their search is infinite. The memory of the intense pleasures that they know is assimilated to a lost paradise, but they do not know in what values ​​to found their future happiness.

When it comes to vast and complex societies, these two tendencies are mixed, although one always predominates. Thus, our contemporary western civilization is committed to a race towards a Dionysian-type happiness – there are many needs that the individual tries vainly to satisfy – but it often tries to appease his discomfort by re-founding the Apollonian values: simple and quiet life, search of an interior balance. Along with this tension between the Dionysian and the Apollonian there are other factors that determine what a society understands as happiness. Historical circumstances are an example of this: during a period of calm, security and abundance, happiness is not considered under the same angle as during periods of war or hardship. In addition, in the same society, the conception of happiness changes according to social classes. Sociology teaches us that there is a threshold of misery below which the individual no longer has any idea of ​​what can be called happiness. This relativity of conceptions about happiness explains, to a large extent, the halo of darkness that surrounds this notion.

Happiness thesis statement linked to time

Happiness is linked to time: it demands stability and continuity. To think that happiness can come to an end is to vitiate the happy moment that we live, with the anguish that it will cease. This temporary character makes it possible to distinguish between happiness and pleasure. Happiness is not pleasure, since the latter indicates the momentary satisfaction of a particular tendency; It remains limited, superficial and ephemeral. Happiness is, on the contrary, the overall tonality of a whole life, at least of a period of this and, paradoxically, it is rare for happiness to be lived as a present that is eternalized. If unhappiness involves retreating oneself and sharpens self-consciousness, the happy man usually lets himself live without being clearly aware of his state, without questioning himself about the nature of his happiness. Proof of the temporal character of thesis on happiness is that it is usually spoken in the past of happy time: we were happy during a period of our life. We contrast the past happiness with the present misfortunes, and our past, decanted by memory, is revalued. And in this past we get new strengths, even new reasons to wait. It is then in the future that we project our happiness. We live the present too passively and neutrally too often. Everyday banality, neither happy nor unhappy, full of monotonous tasks, unfolds under the mode of boredom, of distraction or of waiting. Dragged by the flight of time, rejected in the past, projected in the future, happiness seems, in fact, difficult to grasp.

Seek happiness in a world so upset by injustice and drama may seem selfish. Our own happiness is always linked to the search for the happiness of others. This search helps us to live. In the value of happiness, R. Polin sees one of the “reference poles” of existence. However, the human condition seems very unfavorable to thesis for happiness. Man is a being for death. He is imprisoned by the time that drags him inexorably towards decadence. Man is a limited being in his power, condemned to failure, doubt and dissatisfaction. Man needs the other, but it runs away. Most of these classic themes have been taken up by Christian moralists, to underline the misery of fallen man: although man can seek the oblivion of his misery in “fun”, he cannot find happiness but in salvation.