Life, work and the pursuit of happiness

By Zoë Wundenberg
March 6 2018 - 9:00am
Life, work and the pursuit of happiness
Life, work and the pursuit of happiness

Happiness is an elusive concept and its pursuit is often as elusive as the construct itself. And yet pursue it, we do. Rather unhelpfully, the Oxford English Dictionary defines happiness as “the state or feeling of being happy”. So I find myself wondering, what is happy? What is this concept we are all supposedly pursuing? Aristotle defined happiness as a mixture of pleasure and a life well lived, which today psychologists translate as meaning “pleasure and meaning”. Recent thoughts on the subject in the area of positive psychology have added the idea of “engagement” to the meaning of happiness, indicating the importance of balance in work, family, friends and personal interests.

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