Happiness Depends on Us
Ryan Cesario
Professor Lureau
FYE: Stumbling on Happiness
20 September 2013
Happiness Depends on Ourselves Happiness; the quality or state of being happy, having good fortune, pleasure and/or joy. That is what “happiness” is defined by Dictionary.com LLC. If that was the definition of the word, I would be done with this paper and I would be hitting print as we speak. Unfortunately it is not that simple to slap a universal definition to this word, or any word rather. The author of Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert, attempts to define the word. With several factors being put into play such as the measuring of happiness, different memories and different feelings can vary Gilbert’s definition from mine. Writing a book with 263 pages based on the topic of happiness, Gilbert shows us his own definition of the word relatively early, “Happiness, then, is the you-know-what-I-mean feeling” (35). Do I even have to explain his quote? Because according to Gilbert we already “know what he means”. On the serious note, Gilbert is trying to make a point that it is extremely difficult to describe this word. He goes on to say that if we were to try and describe this word, we would most likely ditch the idea of using a definition and try and describe it by pointing out examples of what makes us happy. Well then if you go down that route, you are already looking at millions of different possibilities of what makes people happy. You can see why it is so difficult for Gilbert because everyone in this world is made completely different from one another. Their own definition of happiness or feeling of happiness can range from person to person. The struggle begins when everyone has their own definition of happiness. The result of them having their own definition of this word occurs since everyone has their own unique life experiences. There is a reason behind everyone’s definition and the thinking that was put into it. The first thing that is put into their thinking is the
Professor Lureau
FYE: Stumbling on Happiness
20 September 2013
Happiness Depends on Ourselves Happiness; the quality or state of being happy, having good fortune, pleasure and/or joy. That is what “happiness” is defined by Dictionary.com LLC. If that was the definition of the word, I would be done with this paper and I would be hitting print as we speak. Unfortunately it is not that simple to slap a universal definition to this word, or any word rather. The author of Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert, attempts to define the word. With several factors being put into play such as the measuring of happiness, different memories and different feelings can vary Gilbert’s definition from mine. Writing a book with 263 pages based on the topic of happiness, Gilbert shows us his own definition of the word relatively early, “Happiness, then, is the you-know-what-I-mean feeling” (35). Do I even have to explain his quote? Because according to Gilbert we already “know what he means”. On the serious note, Gilbert is trying to make a point that it is extremely difficult to describe this word. He goes on to say that if we were to try and describe this word, we would most likely ditch the idea of using a definition and try and describe it by pointing out examples of what makes us happy. Well then if you go down that route, you are already looking at millions of different possibilities of what makes people happy. You can see why it is so difficult for Gilbert because everyone in this world is made completely different from one another. Their own definition of happiness or feeling of happiness can range from person to person. The struggle begins when everyone has their own definition of happiness. The result of them having their own definition of this word occurs since everyone has their own unique life experiences. There is a reason behind everyone’s definition and the thinking that was put into it. The first thing that is put into their thinking is the