How Does John Stuart Mill Define Happiness

Pursuit of Unhappiness Happiness has never been a difficult thing to understand. Unlike other feelings such as anger and love that need a build up, when you’re happy, it’s automatic. Nobody ever sits there laughing and having an engaging conversation with a friend, thinking is this happiness? Because we as human beings know when we are happy. It’s like a little light bulb that goes off in our heads when we’re doing something we enjoy. You don’t question happiness, you just go with it. Although, happiness is a really easy concept to understand the journey to happiness is not so easy. We know happiness when we feel it, but we don’t know really know how to get there. We may have misleading ideas that happiness means financial security, a well-paying

Mill explains that many people see happiness as the ultimate goal of life and ironically, that sort of thinking is the reason they aren’t happy. He goes on to say “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” Through this quote Mill gets the message across that you can’t achieve happiness simply by wishing to be happy. You can only truly be happy by devoting yourself to something you feel passionate about. Whether that be a cause you feel strongly about or simply a hobby you’ve always wanted to try. There is much truth to this argument, but there is a also a few flaws. For one, you can’t really go out and do what you’re passionate about without first doubting your happiness completely. The idea that searching for happiness will only get you further from your happiness is a little ridiculous. It is important to question your happiness. If you don’t question your happiness you lose perspective on what’s really important to you. For example, if the people in the civil rights movement wouldn’t have questioned whether they were really okay with how racist and corrupt the laws were they would have never been able to achieve equality. The entire civil rights movement was based on the question John Stuart Mill claims is unnecessary, but it is necessary. When you question your happiness you’re doing your future self a favor, so that you don’t end up

What tends to happen is that we focus on materialistic things, foolishly believing that they will bring us happiness, and then one day when we get the fancy car, the nice house and the well paying job we’re still unhappy. That’s why this is so important. When you actually spend the time to focus on what’s important to you and what makes you happy you don’t have to end up regretting the decisions you make. That is why for ages philosophers have been trying to figure out the key to happiness and so when John Stuart Mill comes in and proposes his philosophy for happiness it’s taken with a grain of salt. It’s overlooked and not taken seriously because he’s not the first and won’t be the last to claim he has the way to happiness, but there’s something different about Mill’s philosophy. It is a great start to finding your own happiness. Of course everyone’s journey is different, but keeping in mind that happiness is the most achievable when it’s not your ultimate goal definitely helps. All things considered this should be important to everyone because happiness and fulfilment within your life is as important as the air you breathe. Without happiness and fulfilment within our lives, we are useless. We were given the ability to ration, feel emotions, and make decisions and to have all of that and not take the time to search for your happiness is incredibly