Philosophy, Happiness and Success

1. A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

Some people think of philosophy as airy-fairy waffle that is of no interest to anybody but academics and pretentious buffoons. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing more practical and useful than a good philosophy of life. Each of us lives our life from an unconscious philosophy of life - a blueprint that we follow like Pavlov's dogs. Unless and until we make that philosophy conscious, and change it so that it serves us instead of defeating us, we will be the pawns of those who trained our current philosophy of life into us.

On this website you will find elements of philosophy which can begin the process of liberating you from the chains of an excessively restrictive philosophy of life. Increasingly in the future, you will also find elements of philosophy that are designed to tackle the post-liberation event with guidance on how to live a productive pro-social life, in harmony with others, and in just institutions, without which there cannot be a harmonious society.

More on philosophy of life.

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2. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS

Success! What does that mean to you? For some people it means a bigger car. A bigger house. More cash to blow on empty calories. More conspicuous consumption. That, of course, is a possible way to be. But it is not success! It is not a form of 'right livelihood'. And it has nothing to do with the road to happiness or completion as a human being.

Indeed there seem to be more 'failures' among the super-rich today than among the moderately poor. (See 'Affluenza', by Oliver James, psychologist and author).

There are many different ways of defining and approaching personal and professional success, and success in life in general. My dictionary defines success as: "1. the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. 2. the gaining of fame, wealth, or social status..." And I would say that while number one is an important part of my definition of success, number two quite definitely is not. If you do what you love in life, and love the people in your life, you will gain all the acclaim and joyful success that any person could reasonably want. And if you do what you love, the money often will follow.

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3. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HAPPINESS

My dictionary of psychology does not contain a definition of the word 'happiness', mainly because, historically, psychology was concerned more with human misery and malfunction than with human thriving.

My English dictionary defines 'happiness' as "...feeling or showing pleasure..." But is that what we normally mean by the word happiness? I suspect that this is sometimes what we mean, but that we often mean something much calmer, and less dramatic, such as feeling calm and serene; feeling centred and grounded; feeling bliss; feeling comfortable and at peace; and so on.

Indeed, in my model of human emotions, and how they relate to bodily (or physiological) arousal, the word 'happiness' refers to an aroused positive state which occurs at a similar level of cardiovascular and visceral arousal as the 'healthy negative emotions' of concern and irritation. That is to say that happiness thus defined is a reasonable level of positive emotion, with a reasonable level of physiological arousal.

...more here...

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