Happiness: A History
Speaking of Darrin McMahon, here’s a review of his Happiness: A History by philosopher Gordon Marino. I’m really looking forward to picking this up. I think historical works like this should help would-be social scientists to see that happiness is a cultural conception that has evolved a great deal over time, and continues to evolve. The cultural boundedness of happiness implies that it is not particularly scientific to pluck our current conception of happiness out of history, pickle it in a jar of formaldehyde, and pretend that happiness studies are plumbing the timeless essence of a universal natural psychological kind, which, it just happens, uniquely exemplifies moral value.
But let me gripe some about the review. About halfway through, Marino mentions “our own age of near-pandemic depression,” and then, later writes:
. . . McMahon seems convinced by recent studies indicating that we are each endowed with a kind of emotional set point. According to this view, most humans are existentially unflappable. Whether it be winning the lottery or losing our jobs, after an initial reaction we settle back down into the same old repertoire of moods. As the scientists of happiness have it, we are both amazingly resilient against tragedy and remarkably resistant to radically positive change. In a footnote, McMahon concedes that depression stands as an exception to this rule — and quite an exception it is, because, according to an article cited in “Happiness,” millions of people are on antidepressants. I have had my boat rocked a few times in life and I have watched a few others go over the falls, and my experience roils against the view that, emotionally speaking, nothing ever really changes, or at least not for long.
And millions of people take Vitamin C supplements indicating . . . what? A near-pandemic of scurvy? Again, I’ll point to my depression posts here, and here, my depression op-ed, and the Horwitz and Wakefield essay that got me on this kick.
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When you say “happiness is a cultural conception” are you rejecting the evolutionary psychology of emotion, or are you saying you don’t want to use “happiness” as an emotion?
I continue to see “happiness” and “joy” (etc.) as spoken representations of our internal emotional states.
BTW, it is interesting that the words “set point” (properly one word, “setpoint”) have made the transition from their original field (feedback based control systems, in engineering) into so many discusions of human behavior.
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=1nr0349e59rp6?tname=setpoint&method=6&sbid=lc05b
BTW2, it is amusing that Marino seems to believe that a “set point” must be fixed. In the world of automation it is exatly oppoiste, the place for adjustment (think “home thermostat”).
And as it happens, human genetics seem full of “tendencies” and not “fixed values.”
If taking vitamin C changes your set point, go ahead
I’m not rejecting the evolutionary psychology of emotion. I’m saying that happiness isn’t a basic emotion, but a syndrome of ways of feeling constructed out of basic emotional elements.
Happiness is an English-language word, and as such has traditional meanings, as well as the potential to become a semantic battleground.
I’m mistrustful of “redefinitions” for that reason.
BTW, “Happy” new year!
I’m in the mood to ramble a little on word meaning this morning, I hope you don’t mind …
I remember stories of the OED, and the process of constructing a dictionary in the old days. I believe there was a lot of reading, clipping, and counting … as word popularity determined went into a dictionary, and the word’s actual usage determined its meaning. Google & etc. shocked the dictionary community by making a count and survey one click away. Is “foo” a word? (click) Yes it is.
Wikipedia attempts the ultimate, dynamic, transformation of this process … to one in which meaning of a word or concept is the result of an ongoing contest for consensus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness
Hey Will…this is for the first time I read your blog..very interesting.Guess we share a simialr mindset.Above all I liked the name of your blog..I have a couple of postings on Happiness on my blog.Invite you to read them..
redirecting to the correct url…there was a technical error in the previous one.thnx for understanding.
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