DISQUS

Bill Korner · 4 years ago

Great quote indeed. Spoken by the World Controller (or whatever) as he explains why he envies the non-conformist intellectual sent off to an island full of similarly (too) strong-minded scholars. Mustapha gave up his passion scientifically studying what actually makes people happy choosing instead to manage the world by controlling what makes them happy.

Now, of course, he's come to consider this decision a sacrifice of his own personel happiness for the benefit of others. So he is actually (contrary to the quote) no longer unsure about what makes his subjects "happy". (No less sure than the contemporary corporate manager.) Nor does he really envy the intellectually insatiable Bernard Marx. (John Savage may be another matter.)

Dylan · 4 years ago

"There is evidence that happier people are more self-deceiving, for instance. So it may be that unhappiness enables self-knowledge, or outward knowledge unclouded by the mists of optimism."

I'm quite certain you have the causality reversed here.

Will Wilkinson · 4 years ago

If I remember correctly, people who were temporarily depressed were more accurate in self-assessments during that time.

Bill Korner · 4 years ago

Economics' ability to deal in terms other than individual happiness is way underappreciated.

Consider Sen's famous "Paretian Liberal" paper: The impossibility result is established based on a supposition that each individual has rank ordered every possible social state (social state = "a complete description of society including everyone's position in it"). Now, in any such complete description (I submit) only a relatively small number of features could have to do with the particular individual's well-being or happiness. Surely that's right unless one defines everything that one has a preference about as relevant to happiness. (And in Sen's scenario individuals don't even decide what to have preferences about. It's an existential nightmare!)

Will's post focus's very much on the experiences, knowledge, virtues, etc. of the unhappy individual. But this is not the only way to go. One can also evaluate an individual life in terms of how "preferences" are realized independently of the question: "Which preference satisfactions promote his happiness?"

Gil · 4 years ago

Thinking about Brad DeLong's head exploding makes me happier.

Dylan · 4 years ago

I guess the chronically depressed delude themselves into believing their exceptionally clear and undeluded judgment is the inherent characteristic that makes them depressed, rather than the quite depressing alternative.

uo gold · 1 year ago

"If you want happiness for an hour -- take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day -- go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month -- get married.
If you want happiness for a year -- inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime -- help someone else.