What I want is a life worth living, people worth living with and a culture worth living in—quality, not quantity
There might be differences in how to archive that, but I’m pretty sure everyone here agrees to that in general.
irrational things like religion, magical thinking and art
One of those things definitely doesn’t belong in this list (hint: it’s art).
Trying to maximize happiness via rationality is a fool’s quest! The happiest people I know are totally irrational!
You are confusing the concept of increasing happiness by rational means and increasing happiness by teaching rationality to people. If you only care about happiness and people that engage in magical thinking are systematically happier, it would be completely rational to teach magical thinking. If you teach rationality to people it will destroy some of their irrational beliefs. Depending on whether those irrational beliefs make them happy or unhappy, the impact on happiness would (I think) depend heavily on the person.
There might be differences in how to archive that, but I’m pretty sure everyone here agrees to that in general.
One of those things definitely doesn’t belong in this list (hint: it’s art).
You are confusing the concept of increasing happiness by rational means and increasing happiness by teaching rationality to people. If you only care about happiness and people that engage in magical thinking are systematically happier, it would be completely rational to teach magical thinking. If you teach rationality to people it will destroy some of their irrational beliefs. Depending on whether those irrational beliefs make them happy or unhappy, the impact on happiness would (I think) depend heavily on the person.
It certainly isn’t.
I don’t. Quantity times quality. Or do you count that as agreement?
Yes. You still care about quality, just not exclusively.
I agree with you that quantity is important, too.