Eudaimonia is often translated to mean happiness, but some scholars contend that "human flourishing" may be a more accurate translation. AristotleĪristotle described eudaimonia ( Greek: εὐδαιμονία) as the goal of human thought and action. Throughout the history of moral philosophy, there has been an oscillation between attempts to define morality in terms of consequences leading to happiness and attempts to define morality in terms that have nothing to do with happiness at all. Happiness, however, remains a difficult term for moral philosophy. Happiness is no longer defined in relation to social life, but in terms of individual psychology. The consequence was a redefinition of the moral terms. However, with the rise of individualism, begotten partly by Protestantism and capitalism, the links between duty in a society and happiness were gradually broken.
Traditional European societies, inherited from the Greeks and from Christianity, often linked happiness with morality, which was concerned with the performance in a certain kind of role in a certain kind of social life. Philosophy of happiness is often discussed in conjunction with ethics. Main article: Philosophy of happiness Happiness in relation to morality
Some users accept these issues, but continue to use the word because of its convening power. The implied meaning of the word may vary depending on context, qualifying happiness as a polyseme and a fuzzy concept.Ī further issue is when measurement is made appraisal of a level of happiness at the time of the experience may be different from appraisal via memory at a later date. Whereas Nordic countries often score highest on swb surveys, South American countries score higher on affect-based surveys of current positive life experiencing. For instance the correlation of income levels has been shown to be substantial with life satisfaction measures, but to be far weaker, at least above a certain threshold, with current experience measures. These differing uses can give different results. Xavier Landes has proposed that happiness include measures of subjective wellbeing, mood and eudaimonia. For instance Sonja Lyubomirsky has described happiness as " the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one's life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile." Eudaimonia, is a Greek term variously translated as happiness, welfare, flourishing, and blessedness. Subjective well-being (swb) includes measures of current experience (emotions, moods, and feelings) and of life satisfaction. Some usages can include both of these factors.
For instance Ruut Veenhoven has defined happiness as " overall appreciation of one's life as-a-whole." Kahneman has said that this is more important to people than current experience.