What Is Happiness In John Stuart Mill's In Pursuit Of Unhappiness

Happiness is the positive emotion and contentment one feels naturally. Many Psychology studies have been concluded to display what pure happiness is. In the article, “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” by Darrin M. McMahon, he indicates that happiness cannot be forced. In the article, McMahon mentions a philosopher, John Stuart Mill, who acknowledges as well, that happiness can not be forced. He says that if one focuses on something other than their own happiness, happiness will come to them naturally. By what Mill says, people should be encouraged that happiness will come to them and can not force happiness to them. Another example is Jeffrey Kluger’s article, “The Happiness of Pursuit”, he talks about how people focus on never being happy. He says,

For example, according to McMahon’s article, Mill says, “Those are only happy...who have their minds fixed on some other object other than their own happiness…” (McMahon 2). In other words, he’s saying that if one focuses on something else other than their own happiness, they will obtain happiness. The significance of what Mill says is that one can obtain happiness by making others happy. Another example is the “2011 Happy Documentary” directed by Roko Belic, who shows many different countries and showing the meaning of happiness. An example from the documentary is the Residents in Jernstoberiet, Denmark Co-Housing Community who say that surrounding themselves with people produces pure happiness. This is a housing where many families live together and care for each other. When a mother’s child got hurt people in that community helped her daughter. It shows that they care for each other and can depend on each other. The significance of this example is that, because they surround themselves with many people in their resident community, they receive a lot of contentment from each other. Happiness comes naturally by focusing on other objects other than their own