Hi, thanks for your reply! I’m not yet sure that we actually disagree. What do you think of with the word happiness? If you’re thinking of happiness simply as “pleasure” then I would agree, that pleasure and goodness alone are not the only psychological motivators. I used happiness to describe someone’s preferred mind-state, the mind-state in which someone would feel the most content. So it’s different for everyone. Some people are happy just to follow their impulses and live in the moment, but other personality types are happier when they have a strong sense of identity, which seems to be what you’re describing.
You also say you want to matter. I think the belief that we will be remembered after our deaths is a one that would lead to happiness, too, so we want to act in such a way that would encourage this belief in ourselves.
I identify with a lot of what you’re saying. I’m less identity-driven than most people, but there are still certain things about myself (being frugal, for example) that, even if I knew changing them would bring me pleasure, I wouldn’t want to simply because I consider them part of my identity. Although it doesn’t make complete sense to me, I think that this small sense of identity contributes to my happy mind-state.
So I’m guessing that your idea of happiness was just a bit more narrow than mine was? But we probably still agree?
Hi, thanks for your reply! I’m not yet sure that we actually disagree. What do you think of with the word happiness? If you’re thinking of happiness simply as “pleasure” then I would agree, that pleasure and goodness alone are not the only psychological motivators. I used happiness to describe someone’s preferred mind-state, the mind-state in which someone would feel the most content. So it’s different for everyone. Some people are happy just to follow their impulses and live in the moment, but other personality types are happier when they have a strong sense of identity, which seems to be what you’re describing.
You also say you want to matter. I think the belief that we will be remembered after our deaths is a one that would lead to happiness, too, so we want to act in such a way that would encourage this belief in ourselves.
I identify with a lot of what you’re saying. I’m less identity-driven than most people, but there are still certain things about myself (being frugal, for example) that, even if I knew changing them would bring me pleasure, I wouldn’t want to simply because I consider them part of my identity. Although it doesn’t make complete sense to me, I think that this small sense of identity contributes to my happy mind-state.
So I’m guessing that your idea of happiness was just a bit more narrow than mine was? But we probably still agree?