This post was prompted by an EDGE article by Daniel Gilbert `The Science of Happiness (5.22.06). My views are backed up in www.humantruth.org
Happiness is an emotion. In nature, it is the fulfilment of every instinctive function. In humans it is a matter of truly fulfilling intelligence. In each case it is a matter of doing good.
Looking out of my window, I see a pair of blue tits popping in and out of a nest box, feeding their young. This is very hard work that is doing good, for themselves, their species, and nature in general, but they may not know it. What they do know is that it makes them happy to fulfil instinct in this way.
In the human species, much of what we do is generally not good, yet makes us believe we are happy. But it is not genuine happiness because it is not the true fulfilment of intelligence. An example is the competitive money economy, a matter of semi- intelligent pursuing the drives of instinct. This practice brings a certain happiness to those who have money but it is not good in that it produces waste and does harm. It pretends to be the fulfilment of intelligence while actually fulfilling instinct.
In other words, true human happiness is an emotional accompaniment of doing good.
Our present problem is that we find semi-happiness in doing what is bad. Often there seems to be little alternative, and the situation worsens when, in our bid to make that semi-happiness complete we do more bad, which might work for some but adds to the general unhappiness. An example is the pleasure to be gained from acquiring possessions, a pleasure that may be sustained only by further acquisition.
Jackdaw (Bapty, Titus)