The debate about what constitutes happiness has been going on for thousands of years. It is unlikely ever to end. Even if scientists come up with a pill which, taken daily like a vitamin tablet, imparts an all-encompassing feeling of permanent contentment, that will not end the questions. Can such artificially induced euphoria really be happiness? Is not the contrasting experience of misery essential to any true knowledge of happiness? Is not a sense of achievement one vital ingredient in feeling happy? And so eternally and philosophically on and on the questions will remain.
Measurement features prominently in the debate. How does one measure happiness? It is easy to measure money in the bank, material goods accumulated, successes gained, power exercised, fame achieved. Yet all these together and happiness may not result. But most men and women prefer to be able to count their blessings rather than enjoy a nebulous bliss. So money, worldly success, possessions, power and fame are what most of us would choose over any vague experience of happiness if both were on offer. Indeed, there is a good case for claiming that if mankind’s goal had not always and simply been to get money, success, possessions, power and fame our species would not have made it this far. Through the millennia, generation after generation, the drive to attain these goals, not the mushy desire to be happy, is what has taken mankind to the top of the tree of life. And yet, though we have made it far indeed, is it not strange that the questions involving a satisfaction we cannot measure never go away?
