Oh yes Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
This article kind of mixes different definitions of happiness. There’s the constitutional reference which comes from ancient greek roman philosophy and its origin is Aristotelian
Happiness as “Evdemonia” in Aristotelian scripts (Eudemonia in wikipedia) which more accurately translates as having “good demons” with you, which can be interpreted as feeling content/lucky for what you have.
Happiness as “Joyfulness” which is smily face marketing and instant gratification and hedonistic stuff aka buying the new iphone each year and getting bored at it and buying afterwards the next one because under a microscope the photo of the dark side of the moon looks better, when somebody else takes it.
So if one needs to repeat escalate: hedonism usually exploited by marketing, if you need to pay probably a facade of happiness and unfulfilling. Hedonism is nice to have tho.
If one is feeling lucky for his life and future: happiness aka lucky for parameters of ones life that would be deemed important 300 years ago and should be important in 300 years, conative with a sense of purpose. usually exploited by social and political systems (e.g.to be happy you need good health, very expensive if politics fights life) happiness is a must have
This article conflates one definition of happiness to the other while only discussing affective optimisation of hedonism.
We don't buy the next iPhone because it has a better camera, but because it makes us feel not being left behind. I routinely see people who can't afford one splurging on the newest iPhone and AirPods. People even wear fake AirPods.
Radiohead has an entire album about how fake and ultimately unfulfilling this is, but the problem is that we live in a society, and nobody wants to be an outlier. I may like the sound quality of my old earphones, but I still feel a tingle of shame when everyone else is sporting AirPods. We are evolved to follow norms, those who don't were ostracised from the community with dire consequences. This kind of fake happiness is thus an advantage.
We don’t disagree! I did not say we buy the new thing because it has a better camera experience, I said we are buying it because we are told others are having a better camera experience which we will not witness anyway
The most expensive iPhone variant (Pro Max) has the best camera, but the bulk of the social value is having a contemporary iPhone, which is an iPhone with a notch, X and newer. Social value hinges on obvious differences. Cameras are used for selfies and art. As long as there are no obvious differences a better camera wouldn't trigger our fear of being ostracised. A new kind of camera, like everyone suddenly using front-facing cameras, or everyone suddenly taking 3D selfies with a new camera would. It's a two-way street though, if most people think that 3D selfies are not it your new camera is now a source of embarrassment.
Happiness as “Evdemonia” in Aristotelian scripts (Eudemonia in wikipedia) which more accurately translates as having “good demons” with you, which can be interpreted as feeling content/lucky for what you have.
Happiness as “Joyfulness” which is smily face marketing and instant gratification and hedonistic stuff aka buying the new iphone each year and getting bored at it and buying afterwards the next one because under a microscope the photo of the dark side of the moon looks better, when somebody else takes it.
So if one needs to repeat escalate: hedonism usually exploited by marketing, if you need to pay probably a facade of happiness and unfulfilling. Hedonism is nice to have tho.
If one is feeling lucky for his life and future: happiness aka lucky for parameters of ones life that would be deemed important 300 years ago and should be important in 300 years, conative with a sense of purpose. usually exploited by social and political systems (e.g.to be happy you need good health, very expensive if politics fights life) happiness is a must have
This article conflates one definition of happiness to the other while only discussing affective optimisation of hedonism.