About Happiness

I want to think about human happiness.

What is happiness in the first place?

A state of being full of love, a state that is better than relative unhappiness.

Is happiness “absolute” or “relative” as a criterion for feeling happy?

I think it is “relative” in most cases.

The reason why most of the time is because I believe in absolutes, but I can’t think of them in my mind.

I believe that not only happiness, but also love, beauty, and other concepts and ideas must have absolute standards, but I cannot think of any concrete examples.

As for happiness, I believe that it depends largely on relative happiness.

I believe that we feel happy when we compare our past experiences and our situation with others and judge that our current situation is superior to them.

Of course, the comparison itself is not done consciously, but unconsciously and in an instant.

They are judging the current situation based on all kinds of prior information.

In addition, the criteria for making such judgments also depend to a large extent on experience.

What constitutes good or bad is determined by an understanding based on all the information that has been cultivated over the course of one’s life.

This is why the criteria for happiness differ from person to person.

Factors that cause the degree of “relative happiness” to differ from person to person

• Different comparators (past experiences, comparisons with others)
• Different standards of judgment (different degrees of happiness even for the exact same experience).

The criteria for judgment itself can also be encompassed by the fact that the criteria for judgment also differ depending on the object of comparison, since the criteria are ultimately aligned through the use of comparisons.

Since they are “relative,” the evaluation changes depending on the object of comparison.