Faversham Stoa is a philosophy discussion group meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 7.30 to 9.30pm in the Happiness
If you don't read anything else at least read On the Happiness Trail (8 pages). It covers the difficulty of defining happiness; happiness as a temporary feeling or mood (like pleasure) and the more lasting dispositional happiness that we might call well-being or flourishing; higer and lower forms of happiness (Johnson called these the ‘pleasures of swine’ – the snob!); the fact that some people are just born with happy outlooks; the effect of environment and wealth; the dissatisfaction caused by comparing yourself with others; the satisfaction of being absorbed in interesting and worthwhile work; and the msytery of why Iceland is at the top of the league for feeling happy.
“I couldn't shake the suspicion that Veenhoven was comparing apples with oranges, that when icelanders talk of 'happy' they mean something different to what we do.”
Some articles
- The Curse of Comparison
- (7 pages) Scientific evidence appears to show that people who are happy with their status in life have high seritonin levels and thus feel happier. This is a cause and not an effect. When we are constantly comparing ourselves with others this makes us feel dissatisfied and results in a lowering of serotnin.
- Happiness: Has Social Science a Clue?
- (24 pages) A serious sociology report with lots of data.
- Happiness is back
- (7 pages)
- Happiness manifesto
- A 1 page recommendation of the activities that can help you to attain happiness. This comes out of a BBC series all about happiness. It seems a bit trite and "Readers Digest" to me (apologies to RD readers!). But perhaps there is truth in cliches.
- Happiness
- from The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (1 page)
- Nigeria tops happiness survey
- BBC news report
- So what do you have to do to find happiness?
- Are we wired up to be cheerful, or are some of us destined to languish in abject misery? Dorothy Wade reports on the new science of feeling good (Times)
- The Formula for Happiness
- Happiness = P + (5xE) + (3xH)
- The Politics of Happiness
- Well-Being
- from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Whatever Happened to Happiness?
