In Pursuit Of Happiness Kingwell Summary

619 Words2 Pages

In “In Pursuit of Happiness” by Mark Kingwell, Kingwell really questions the reader about is it better to pursue happiness if it’s risking to never truly find it or just by simply letting happiness come to them naturally. He really tries to figure out the question himself by reading insights or stories from other philosophers and authors with similar interests only to come to find out that there seems to be an underlying theme that relates to a lot of “self-help” happiness. Kingwill also writes about the nature of happiness and the idea of “better living” simply saying that it seems that rich or poor it seems that no one can ever truly win in the”mug’s game”. But yet, he still question what might really be the true definition of happiness and …show more content…

I also think that Kingwell’s purpose was to inform the reader about a word that we often find hard to define such as happiness. The author’s audience seem to concerned readers who seem to be who want to find happiness or who seemed to be confused about whether they are happy or not. One of the many strategies Kingwell uses is the fair use of information because he uses John Stuart Mill and other great thinkers. In his article, Kingwell even quoted Mill, “ John Staurt Mill fingered an even more troubling problem. “Ask yourself whether you are happy,” he wrote in his 1873 Autobiography, “ and you cease to be so” The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness” I think he ones at least one emotionally loaded term and i think it serves as a key to the article which would simply the word “happy” or “happiness”. This term is seemed as more of an evil term rather than just a ‘happy’ term. Kingwell even states “ On this view, asking about happiness can only result in unhappiness or confusion, and therefore the project must succumb to its own self contradiction”. This quote basically supports as well his underlying theme of to pursue happiness is when you will really be unhappy. Another great strategy I think that Kingwell uses is that throughout the article, he seems to be persistent on begging the question. I feel like he asks a few questions throughout

Open Document