True Happiness - You Don't Say!

True Happiness - You Don't Say!

Say What?:
I was asked to argue, in the affirmative, the following proposition, “True happiness consists not in having it all but in desiring nothing.” This is my attempt to do so...

Biology 101:
It is generally accepted that to understand the inner workings of an engine, or a heart, or a hand-made clock, one must first dissect it into its composing parts and understand how each component works. Only then can one comprehend the workings of the whole. A statement cannot escape a similar fate, indeed it is more important to dissect a statement than a clock. A clock leaves little room for interpretation and, when both hands touch, as in prayer to God, a clock will always sound twelve, but a statement will have a different hue, depending on the reader and his frame of mind. An engine has no function, but the purpose to run, but a word can both pleasure and pain with the slightest of hint.

To debate is one of the greatest freedoms one can enjoy, so let us do it justice and disassemble our statement, and take it out of its darkness, and let’s rebuild it with great care so that it may chime twelve and convince us all that it is noon.

All Visitors to this State Must Check their Guns:
Happiness is the subject at hand and, although I am not asked to argue or define happiness itself, but rather how one attains happiness, I must, nonetheless, make some affirmation on the nature of happiness; consider a biologist trying to understand what causes the heart to beat faster, and then to restore its proper rhythm, without first concluding that the heart is a muscle. So what is the essence of happiness?

I must be careful not to define happiness in the context of our statement, so as to avoid a circular argument, so let’s just accept the commonplace universal proposition, that happiness is a pleasure emotion of the host. Thomas Jefferson said it well, “happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.” Of course, one can always argue that there is a general state of happiness, outside of the individual (or the host), but one can, too, argue that the sky is green, and be right sometimes, but, as you will agree, one man can take great pleasure and be happy, while dispensing misery and unhappiness to another and, therefore, we can argue with greater certainty about the host, than we can about the State.

I’ll Take Truth for One Hundred:
Let us also accept that to the host of happiness, it must be true. Truth, in this context, does not refer to a concept open for examination by the greater masses, we are not arguing whether the clock strikes noon, or midnight, for in that argument there is only one truth, and it is subject to a universal axiom of time. The word true, in our argument, simply serves to modify happiness and, therefore, must necessarily become part of happiness. I will, therefore, refer to true happiness, as simply, happiness.

Am I seeing Double?:
The noted statement, indeed, has two propositions; that happiness consists not in (A) having it all, or, simply restated, having it all does not constitute happiness, but (B) in desiring nothing. The use of the word but, of course, expresses a mutual exclusion of (A) and (B). So, if one disassembles the statement and rebuilds it for greater clarity, one can say: Happiness consists of either (A), or (B), but not both.

Would You Like an Apple Pie With Your Constellation:
Clearly, the proposition attempts to create a measure for happiness, between nothing and all. However, we must be careful not to fall into the trap, for the scale is indeed two scales of measurement, having and desiring. Here we are forced to accept another universal axiom in order to ascertain what the proposition intends. The proposition cannot literally intend that one can have it all, for if such is true than one must take possession of the earth and stars alike, and all that is in-between, and perhaps beyond. Therefore let us assume that the proposition intends for happiness to be measured on a scale of desire , such that when one has all that one desires, then one has it all (this of course will be the top measurement of happiness on our scale) and the bottom of our scale must necessarily be that one has nothing that one desires.

Say That Again:
The proposition establishes that: Happiness is measured on a scale of desire, whereby the scale ranges from having nothing that one desires, to having all that one desires. In other words, Happiness is at its highest when one desires nothing, establishing, of course, that if one desires nothing, one must necessarily have all that one desires. Therefore, if one wants nothing and has nothing, then one is happy, and, if one wants more than nothing, then one can also be happy, as long as one has what one wants.

Great Expectations:
It would be ludicrous to attempt to compare what one desires and what one has, without a proper interval means of measurement on our scale. Did one get what one desired? Well, that depends on what one expected. The interval of measurement must be expectation. Expectation is the only means of measuring how one feels about what one has acquired, and happiness is about feelings, after all.

Be Careful What You Ask For:
I have now reconstructed our proposition to the core of its essence: Happiness is measured on a scale of desire and the interval of measurement on this scale is expectation. My affirmation of this proposition is now much simpler, in fact it is self evident. One sets a level of expectation for what one desires, be it for wealth, or love or health and, to the extent that one receives or acquires what one desires in exact measurement to one’s expectation, one will be happy. One will be less happy when reality delivers less than one’s expectations, as so often is the case, and one will be ecstatic when reality delivers in excess of one’s expectation, as so seldom is the case. It is evident, therefore, that the establishment of one’s expectations has a great level of influence on whether one is happy, or not happy. Socrates knows what he wants, “How many things are there which I do not want.”

The Sky is the Limit:
It is self evident that to desire or expect something does not require action outside of mere thought. There are few limits to what one can conjure in one’s mind and, therefore, there are few limits to what one can desire.

You Can’t Get Something for Nothing:
Let us move on to another generally accepted axiom, which is that, ‘nothing is less than something.’ Let us also establish that the acquisition of nothing is less involved than the acquisition of something. However, let us agree that one cannot achieve much without some action greater than nothing. It can also be established that actions greater than nothing take more effort than nothing, and therefore, ‘nothin’g is much more easily come by, or acquired, than ‘something.’

What'you Talking About Willis?:
Therefore, when one desires nothing, then one has naught on his interval of expectations and, since nothing is easy to come by, one can be assured quite easily of meeting ones expectations.

I have established that meeting one’s expectations is the measurement of happiness, therefore desiring nothing must necessarily assure happiness in greater quantities than desiring something.

The Math Works:
Happiness is the difference between reality and expectations.