sooo.... plato deduced happiness down to being dutiful.
aristotle says its down to healthy participation (of life), not goals.
anthistenes was sure it was about burying oneself into any virtue(ous delusions), just pick one.
zeno on the other hand says that happiness can be achieved through building up upon a virtue, not burying one’s self in it. (the lazy me would rather be in agreement with anthistenes instead, heh.)
aristippus treats it like a currency, lmao, the fucking accountant.
epicurus believes in being a coward and running away from anything that would exhibit of having even the slightest chance of pain. “what pain? i know nussing of that sorta thing! LALALALALA!!”
quintus sextius sr. probably belongs in the same school as aristippus, demanding self audits every night, and also doing the LALALA. he also believes in externalizing the power of happiness to some sort of a non-personal ghost.
st augustine believes that love is the ultimate answer to happiness, but there’s only a single dealer in town, (what a shady bastard), and so did boethius.
avicenna, aka ibn sina, believes in tuning in to alien radio stations and staying there. (he's probably an avid reader of The Escapist magazine..)
al-ghazali was also pretty ascetic, and says that building one’s life according to any virtue (pick one), was the way. oh and yeah, he’s also recommending you that one single (shady) dealer in town, haha.
maimonides thinks happiness can be arrived through a math equation, though the bastard never shared it with us.
thomas aquinas sounds like a modern scientist and asserts that one needs to use ALL his abilities both mentally and virtuously to build up this “happiness”. oh and he’s kinda pissed off at that dealer cuz i think he got cut off or something /shrugs.
michel de montaigne was probably the originator of burger king’s “have it your way”. he says that you cannot be happy with your burger, unless you specifically have an idea of what it should be like - or change your ideas about how the perfect burger should be like. ...I can live with that.
jeremy bentham goes by the net profit model - pain is okay, as long as the pleasure is, after tax and excise, greater than the net amount of pain. (i wonder if he goes further into putting one’s happiness on IPO..)
i probably could go on, but i shouldnt.
but you know what i should add here?
i should add here, that i think they forgot that it’s easier to give and receive happiness, rather than to create it for one’s own self, and worse yet, hoping for such a creation to stay immortal or invulnerable.
when we just simply endeavour in genuine, honest and sincere acts of compassion towards and for one another, with the only and ultimate effect of causing happiness in another person:
- believe me, the other person will pick up on and notice this immediately, and smile in bewilderment, and whether or not he understands why, he will still feel happy about it, and
- do you have any idea how exciting and fulfilling it is to do this crazy thing called “let’s make that sorry-ass happy, for no other reason whatsoever haha!”. it’s kinda almost like the same feeling when you watch your silly ass rescue pet dog eat the scrumptious food you gave him. why, did we rescue this horrible dog in the first place? (yeah we have a rescue dog and he's still an asshole, but we love him! we call him Mr. Monkey :D)
why dont we just stop discussing about how to be happy (or why there’s a lack thereof) and why dont we just start giving each other happiness?
compassion doesnt need to be all stoic, and holy, and zenny and all that crap! it can be fun and stupid and childish! heck, it can even be sexy, if you play your cards that way!
don't know whom to start with? ME, ME ME ME! MAKE ME, a complete stranger, happy, for absolutely NO REASON whatsoever! DO IT hahaha :D
because, why did i write this? im just imagining the amount of stupid smiles i might cause with this article, and so shall it be! may peace be upon us all, y’all!
ps: as far as my limited knowledge is, i only know of these other philosophies/ers whom have arrived at the same general idea: schopenhauer, buddha, humanism (whomever started it), “pay-it-forward” movements... would love to learn of other ones too which i might’ve missed out.