Herodotus And Happiness

One necessary element of living the good life is happiness. However, the path to happiness is frequently blocked by the pursuit of temporary pleasures. This essay will define pleasure as the temporary feeling of enjoyment, often achieved through the satisfaction of physical desires. Happiness on the other hand will be defined as a permanent state of satisfaction that is capable of enduring through periods in which physical satisfaction is absent. This essay will use the works The History by Herodotus and Happiness by Taylor. The pursuit of happiness and pleasure are considered indistinguishable for many. This essay will argue that those two pursuits are not only not the same, but that in fact the pursuit of pleasure can and often does prevent

In Happiness, Taylor argues that the belief that striving for these two divergent things is the same can hurt a person’s chance of achieving happiness. Taylor states, “It is very common for people, in their ill-considered quest for personal happiness, to spend their lives pursuing some ideal—such as the accumulation of wealth—and then, having succeeded, to miss the happiness erroneously with it (108).” With this Taylor is stating that a misguided quest to experience the pleasures of the world can cause people to miss opportunities to find happiness. He is saying that when people believe that they are on the path to happiness they will not look around them for alternatives. Herodotus’ piece also gives a good example of the pursuit of pleasure clouding the path to happiness. Despite Croesus’ wealth, his desire for more lead him to launch an unsuccessful invasion of Persia. Herodotus describes the results by saying, “Fourteen years he had reigned and fourteen days been besieged, and he had indeed fulfilled the oracle, in that he had destroyed a mighty empire—his own (I. 85-86).” This tale in The History supplies a great example of what happens when one allows themselves to be ruled by their desires. Croesus loses a prosperous, peaceful kingdom because his views are too clouded with desire to look around and find contentment. This also provides a good example of when the desires of the individual can ruin the chance of the entire society to reach happiness. Croesus costs people the ability to grow by throwing them into a pointless war. This shows that while happiness must be found by the individual, an individual’s chance to find happiness can be helped or ruined by