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Happiness and Society

Happiness and Society. Timo Airaksinen. 1. Happiness is a matter of presentation of the self in social life. People say they are happy. 82 % in Finland. Why would they do so? Some reasons are: convention, conformism, convenience. Every person is expected to be happy. 2.

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Happiness and Society

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  1. Happiness and Society Timo Airaksinen

  2. 1 • Happiness is a matter of presentation of the self in social life. • People say they are happy. 82 % in Finland. • Why would they do so? • Some reasons are: convention, conformism, convenience. • Every person is expected to be happy.

  3. 2 • SomeTheories of Happiness • Desire –theory • Small desires vs. grand desires • The paradox of desire • Self-realization (eudaimoinia) • projects • Virtue theory • Hedonism • Positive • Negative

  4. 3 • The external conditions of happiness: • Aristotle: a happy person is virtuous, beautiful, rich, noble man. • Virtue is only a necessary, not sufficient condition of happiness.

  5. 4 • Happy society leads to happy social life. • This is a necessary condition of happiness. • Example: happiness in shanty towns. • Unhappy society leads to unhappy social life. • One cannot be happy in unhappy society.

  6. 5 • What makes a society a happy one? • My conjecture is this: • Happy society is a society which does not experience a threat. • Example: Aztek society of Tenochtitlan and Huitsilopotzl. What is the threat. • We are not happy, or are we? • Our threats: climate change and terrorism, immigration, hunger, poverty.

  7. 6 • Some people say that friends are important (“small social circle”). • This is not a philosophical issue, why? • It is important to have good friends. • It is all ambiguous and contingent: • If you have friends, they are good friends, and they stay with you, you are happy. • In your ‘friends’ are nasty, you are not happy.

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