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Single Idea 13303

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / a. Nature of happiness ]

Full Idea

A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.

Gist of Idea

A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is

Source

Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 078)

Book Ref

Seneca: 'Letters from a Stoic (Selections)', ed/tr. Campbell,Robin [Penguin 1969], p.134


A Reaction

Seneca is a very penetrating thinker about ordinary life - an aspect of philosophy which is nowadays totally neglected by the most eminent philosophers.


The 18 ideas with the same theme [what is the intrinsic nature of happiness?]:

You can be good while asleep, or passive, or in pain [Aristotle]
Happiness seems to involve virtue, or practical reason, or wisdom, or pleasure, or external goods [Aristotle]
Horses, birds and fish are not happy, lacking a divine aspect to their natures [Aristotle]
Happiness for the Stoics was an equable flow of life [Stoic school, by Sext.Empiricus]
A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is [Seneca]
To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature [Seneca]
Ecstasy is for the neo-Platonist the highest psychological state of man [Plotinus, by Feuerbach]
Happiness is a good which once obtained leaves nothing more to be desired [Boethius]
Happiness is advancement towards perfection [Leibniz]
Happiness is a pleasant sensation, or continued state of such sensations [Hutcheson]
Our happiness is all that matters, not as a sensation, but as satisfaction with our whole existence [Kant]
Happiness is the condition of a rational being for whom everything goes as they wish [Kant]
World history has no room for happiness [Hegel]
Happiness is the swift movement from desire to satisfaction, and then again on to desire [Schopenhauer]
Modest people express happiness as 'Not bad' [Nietzsche]
Deep happiness usually comes from the basic things in life [Foot]
Happiness is enjoying the pursuit and attainment of right ends [Foot]
Pleasure can have a location, and be momentary, and come and go - but happiness can't [Taylor,R]