Definition Essay On Happiness

The idea of happiness is a craving humans cannot resist. Humans see happiness as the end all be all of life, as the only thing that can fulfill their lives. It seems as if happiness is some magical state of mind that makes everything and due to that, humans come to an understanding; happiness is the one and only goal in life. The flaw with this understanding of happiness is humans do not know what happiness truly is, leaving it up for debate among the entirety of society. The concept of true happiness is simple, ignorance is bliss; for one to be truly happy, they must not comprehend anything, leaving nothing to be interpreted as positive or negative. The idea that being truly happy is the goal in life, then one would live ignorant to the world, leaving nothing to negatively affect oneself. The problem arises when living ignorant becomes a hassle intellectually and socially. Ignorance stunts growth, preventing advancement of the species. This

idea of happiness that humans crave so much turns out to become a counterintuitive goal, to fulfill their lives, one must restrict progress. This is where the definition of happiness shifts. If happiness requires ignorance, then happiness inhibits development. Humans, unfamiliar with the definition of happiness, creates an unrealistic goal to fulfill their life. Ignorance is bliss, but true happiness should not be the goal of life.
The craving of happiness in society, being seen as the ultimate goal of life, is a misconception caused by the incorrectly defined state of mind, happiness.

This complex and seemingly unreachable goal of happiness has been researched by multiple philosophers throughout multiple eras. Haidt brings up all of these philosophical views stating, “I read dozens of works of ancient wisdom, mostly from… India… China… and the cultures of the Mediterranean” (x), and using these to create a final definition of happiness that he deems as correct. The problem with this is no matter how he describes happiness as, or what area of philosophy he uses, he insists on happiness being something humans much reach to live a good life. This flaw in logic creates the misconception that happiness, while allowing one to feel good about life, is also a good goal in life. Humans fail to understand that though happiness creates a sense of fulfillment, it ultimately stunts the growth of the person and their society, limiting progress, the true goal of

life.
This accusation of happiness being a negative influence on a person and the society is based off the assumption ignorance is bliss. This phrase is quoted from Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, “where ignorance is bliss/tis folly to be wise” (99-100), where Gray describes the lives of students of a challenging school playing and enjoying their youth, being ignorant of their future struggles. He then states that with this situation, where the children do not understand the challenges upcoming, to be unknowing of the future and be happy with the moment is correct; to understand the future of the situation and worry is to be foolish. Gray establishes the idea that happiness comes when one does not comprehend the situation, leaving nothing to be concerned about. Unlike the first part of the quote, Gray uses sarcasm in the second part of the quote to ridicule the idea that it is stupid to be wise. His quote disagrees with the socially accepted ideal that having happiness will lead to a great life actually stating the opposite. Gray breaks the ideal of happiness as a good goal, calling ignorance the cause of happiness and then mocking the idea to be ignorant.
Even Haidt, though indirectly, supports the idea that ignorance is bliss by the theory of negativity bias in humans. The theory of negativity bias states, “such principle is that bad is stronger than good. Responses to threats and unpleasantness are faster, stronger, and harder to inhibit” (Haidt 29). The negativity bias makes humans affected by the negative aspects of life that hurt them much more than the positives. It seems simple to just not let these negatives affect you, but we can’t just go against how our minds are programmed. Haidt continues to explain, “We can’t just will ourselves to see everything as good because our minds are wired to find and react to threats, violations, and setbacks” (Haidt 29). He uses a fish as an example to why our minds are designed this way. If a fish sees an opportunity to eat but misses it, he missed out on a chance for a positive outcome. If a fish sees a predator, but misses it, he dies and his life is over. Since the consequences of missing a negative is much more dire than missing a positive, we are programmed to subconsciously weight the negative more. This causes any unnecessary negatives that we meet to cause much more damage on our emotional state of mind than the positives benefits. Therefore, when one is able to understand more, no matter what, the negatives that one notices causes more damage that the positives will ever make up for. This flaw proves the ability to be ignorant and not comprehend these positives and negatives will save one more damage from negatives than the benefits from positives they are giving up.