Mark Kingwell's Excerpt 'In Pursuit Of Happiness'

Cliff Oxford’s essay “High Performance Happy” evaluates the effect that an individual’s happiness has on their beneficiality to society and how you should always strive to be the happiest you can be. Oxford’s main point is that

In his article "In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac," Mark Kingwell describes how there has been many debates on the meaning of happiness for many years yet still a singular, justifiable definition eludes society. The pursuit to define and understand happiness has invited several debates, questions, arguments, and suggestions alike. In 1996, a hand full of genetic and behavioral studies suggest evidence that one’s achievable degree of happiness is genetically decided, with evidences showing that no achievement will change your happiness, you are either happy or you’re not. Some studies demonstrated a correlation between dopamine levels in the brain and expressions of personal satisfaction, while others indicated that

The fact that happiness is a state of well-being pursued by humans since the beginning of humanity is not new. Since the ancient Greek philosophers, happiness has always been a goal for people. However, the definition of happiness is still subjective and controversial as Mark Kingwell, an award-winning social critic, essayist, and professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, presents in his article “In pursuit of Happiness." The author begins to build his credibility by calling everyday facts and emotions, also by citing philosophers, researchers, and other authors. Using the sources effectively in a persuasive piece, Kingwell demonstrates, through examples and science researches, the difficulty in defining happiness, which can result in unhappiness.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is full of important morals and themes. The book is flooded with symbolism and meaning to both the real world and science fiction world that Bradbury has created. With so many themes in this book it is difficult to choose the ones that contain the most importance, but some of them can be picked out from all the rest, for example, you must have bad things to have good things, you have to earn your happiness and finally, your opinions are influenced by the people around you. These themes show up multiple times in the book and are expressed heavily in the story.

A professor of history at Florida State , Darrin M. McMahon, in his New York Times article, “In Pursuit of Unhappiness”, (11-29-2005) he persuades that happiness is a relentless desire to achieve if you find it on your own. the article written by McMahon he quotes that ”Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness..”. He uses evidence to support his claim by using philosophers John Stuart mill and Carlyle quotes to prove that they all have similar views on how to achieve being happy and be cheerful.It's better to do something that makes you carefree rather than waiting for happiness to come “knocking at your door” as if you gain contentment as pure luck. Sometimes it is better to be bliss

The outstanding ways that people can be brainwashed. Hitler was a dictator that didn't so much brainwash people he would just capture them and make them slaves in World War ll. In the book Anthem, they have been taught to think a certain way and make them live the way they want. Comparing the Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, and then putting Anthem next to it, it shows that Hitler was a dictator that did not care about anyone.

In the article “Stop Trying to be Happy,” Mark Manson states that nowadays, people are striving so hard to be happy, while happiness is something in their self. However, most of them do not realize that when they do something they like, that is not a happiness, it just a pleasure. The problem why people are unhappy is, they always do something on other people expectations, not struggle to reach their expectation. Moreover, negative emotion is important to release unnecessary thing in our self, it keeps a happiness steady. Most people, always do something that is hard for themselves, but they keep try to do it, even they are fail. That kind of action makes them become their ideal selves, it is the effort to reach their expectation to get happy.

Firstly, the use of real-life examples and statistics by Whippman provides context for her arguments, thus strengthening them. This is achieved through adding a sense of realism as to how happiness should be experienced. Thus, it provides tangible means for people to grasp an abstract concept such as happiness. As a result, this enables her to persuade readers to take up her advice. For example, she draws links between the need to experience happiness with others through studies and real-life evidence regarding the lack of the time spent with others e.g., only 24 hours a year spent socialising (Whippman, 2017). This shows us the real-life implication of our actions in search of isolated happiness which has caused an unintended outcome on us as we are supposed to share joyous moments together.

In Happiness: Enough Already, Sharon Begley makes a case for the modern views of happiness and sadness by providing different professional opinions on the the happiness industry, some believe happiness is the sole purpose of life while others believe it is equal to sadness. Jerome Wakefield, a professor at New York University, is approached by many students with complaint concerning their parents’ opinions on dealing with depression, which consist of antidepressants and counseling. Ed Diener, a psychologist, at the University of Illinois, raised to question the idea of a national index of happiness to the Scottish Parliament. Eric Wilson, a professor, at Wake Forest University, tried to embrace becoming happier but ended up embracing the importance

It is a fundamental aspect of society and of mankind that individuals seek their own happiness. Almost every aspect of life centres on the importance of self-fulfillment, and throughout history, the often selfish nature of man loans itself to the idea that life is about pursuing one’s own happiness. In a perfect world, the search for satisfaction in life would go unheeded, and every man would come to realize a perfect sense of self. Unfortunately, there are often many challenges and compromising aspects of society that inhibit individuals from achieving happiness. In Timothy Findley’s 1977 novel, The Wars, the nature in which individuals pursue and or compromise their happiness is explored through the actions of characters,

This passage starts off by talking about a balanced psychology and what it was before World War II. Researches after the war turned to study mental illness because that was where the funding was. Because of the studying of mental illnesses, psychologists and psychiatrists are able to say that thy can “make troubled people less miserable” (pg. 539). Then the passage goes on to talk about what happiness is and how science cannot be used to define it. The routes to happiness are to increase positive emotion, the pursuit of ‘gratification’, and giving life meaning. It also talks about finding flow like Csikszentmihalyi talks about in his story, which is what I use to find out what gives me happiness. Next, the passage talks about Interventions to Nurture Happiness. We have designed and used interventions for each of the three routes to happiness. Which, to me, makes since because we measure our happiness or depression based on the actions that occur in our life.

In the four sources, they are arguing the definition of happiness from different modes. According to the different modes, they are only focus one of the definition of happiness showing to his specific audience. Each one has unique ability to communicate the meaning of life. So people could not give which definition is wrong or right because all of modes emphases different part of definition. So the arguable topic about the definition of happiness still needs

: Definition of happiness is different from person to person. Happiness is a inner feelings or emotions of the person. For some people, happiness is to enjoy their work, social life, but for other it may be money or family. Happiness is an experience in which we can understand more and learn appreciation. Sometimes, happiness is difficult for many to achieve just because of we can not enjoy the moment that we have. Every time we think about some mistakes that we did in past or think about our future. There are some factors which affect it.

Happiness is not feeling good all the time, having more money and affording everything you want, not a final destination. Then what actually is happiness?

Luke, David, and Abraham are three participating students from Australia, Brazil, and China. The first question investigates the students' views upon what exactly happiness means. Luke says that happiness is the joy of achieving anything. He presents a materialistic point of view. When you want to gain or own something and you succeed to do that, you become happy. But David says that happiness