Transcendental Phenomenology and the Way to Happiness: Husserl’s Reply to Csikszentmihalyi

It is an unprecedented task to interpret Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology as a fundamental philosophy of happiness. Although happiness has been discussed in many psychologies, Csikszentmihalyi’s positive psychology defines happiness as “flow”, a psychic state of ongoing immersion guided by intrinsic motivations and rewards. In this paper, I interpret our transcendental consciousness as a radical “flow” maker and claim that in our transcendental life, happiness is what we ourselves are. Then, I propose this not only as an appeal to a change of attitude (i.e. reduction) for happiness, but also as a deep hermeneutics of the mental skills and activity designs suggested by positive psychology. In this way, worldly happiness dictums can be profoundly re-examined. Understood as such, Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology leaves us the task of how to make a concrete form of qualitative or hermeneutical research on happiness out of it.     

快乐感与社会支持的关系

采用量表法以304个成年人为被试研究了快乐感和社会支持的关系。差异检验表明,男性的正向情感和社会支持源显著多于女性;而女性对社会支持的利用度显著高于男性;在快乐感、负向情感和人际支持上没有显著的性别差异。回归分析表明,社会支持中的人际支持(主要包括配偶、父母、朋友、邻里、同事的支持)和支持利用度(包括遇到烦恼时对支持的利用以及团体参与程度)对快乐感、正向情感和负向情感具有较好的预测作用。     

Worthy Actions

Concrete worthy actions have not been aterminus of discernment for moral theory in theway that they often are for the deliberatingmoral agent. Some ordinary hallmarks of worthyactions challenge the unworldly and impersonalways of envisioning life that dominatephilosophical ethics. I discuss six: a worthyaction (1) improves the world in moralperspective, (2) discloses the agent's power,(3) is personally rewarding, (4) unites virtue,justice, and happiness, (5) is a prime objectof moral choice, and (6) belongs to a practicalgenre (such as work or love). Appreciatingworthy actions leads to a less abstract andconformist view of ethical standards and moreattention to individual portfolio-buildingaccording to diverse practical opportunities.     

Following Changes in Living Conditions and Happiness in Post Communist Russia: the Russet Panel

This paper discusses the design of the Russian panel study used in this Volume. It is shown that a standard sampling procedure is used to get a representative sample of the Russian population. The questionnaire has been designed in such a way that the consequences of socio-economic changes in Russia can be observed while also reactions of the people are registered. It has also been shown that satisfaction varies considerably between people, across different domains of life and across time in Russia much more than in Western Democracies.Furthermore, we have shown that happiness and SWB questions do not measure the same. In Russia the first is more related to personal factors as the success of their marriage,while the second is more related to economic factors as the financial situation of the household. Given this difference we concluded that it makes more sense to study changes in satisfaction than happiness because the former is more connected to the socio-economic changes in the society.     

Transhumanism and the Wisdom of Old Genes is Neurotechnology as Source of Future Happiness?

Technological progress seems to open ways for redesigning the human organism. This means that the affective system that is built into the brain by evolution can be redesigned with intent. One of the consequences will be that the word progress will get a new meaning. Progress won't be confined to enhancing the conditions of living, but it will change the way we react to the world. These possibilities are explored in a new kind of biological utopism called 'transhumanism'. This school foresees that a restructured human brain will give rise to 'more varied experience, lifelong happiness and exhilarating peak experiences everyday'. This essay considers the reality value of that expectation in the light of the current psychology of affects, in particular of presumed functions of hedonic experience. It is concluded that transhumanism overlooks that happiness will lose its meaning if it is treated as an isolated feeling. The affective system in our brain needs strong ties with the on-going interaction of the individual with its environment. Making people happier without enhancing the grip on their life will be contra-productive.     

The Four Qualities of Life

The terms 'quality-of-life', 'well-being' and 'happiness' denote different meanings; sometimes they are used as an umbrella term for all of value, and at other times to denote special merits. This paper is about the specific meanings of the terms. It proposes a classification based on two bi-partitions; between life 'chances' and life 'results', and between 'outer' and 'inner' qualities. Together these dichotomies imply four qualities of life: 1) livability of the environment, 2) life-ability of the individual, 3) external utility of life and 4) inner appreciation of life.This fourfold matrix is applied in three ways: firstly to place related notions and alternative classifications, secondly to explore substantive meanings in various measures for quality of life and thirdly to find out whether quality-of-life can be measured comprehensively. This last question is answered in the negative. Current sum-scores make little sense. The most inclusive measure is still how long and happily people live.     

略论安详心态及其伦理意蕴

安详是一种具有统一和谐、宁静安适和明澈透悟三重特征的至善至美的心态,它是幸福的重要内容,也是使人获得幸福所需要的各种条件,并从中真正得到幸福体验的有效保证。     

Pornography,Religion, and the Happiness Gap: Does Pornography Impact the Actively Religious Differently?

Club good models developed by economists suggest that the club provides a benefit to members by fostering the provision of semi-public goods. In the case of religion, churches create enforcement mechanisms to reduce free riding. Consequently, the psychic costs of deviant activity should be higher for individuals who belong to religious groups with strong social norms. Data from the General Social Survey are used to examine whether the cost of using pornography is greater for the more religiously involved. We measure the cost of using pornography as the happiness gap or the gap between the average happiness reported by individuals who do and individuals who do not report using pornography. The happiness gap is larger for individuals who regularly attend church and who belong to religious groups with strong attitudes against pornography.     

Friendship, perceived mattering and happiness: a study of American and Turkish college students

Although it is well established that friendship is a consistent correlate of happiness, less is known about how friendship experiences might promote happiness. The current investigation addressed this gap by testing a mediational model proposing that perceived mattering explains the association of friendship quality with happiness among college students in Turkey and the United States. An alternative model suggesting friendship quality as the mediator was also tested to enhance confidence in the proposed model. SEM analyses revealed that perceived mattering mediated the association of friendship with happiness only in the American sample. In the Turkish sample, friendship quality mediated the association between mattering and happiness. Findings highlight the importance of cross-cultural research and suggest that the underlying processes and psychological mechanisms related to the friendship-happiness link might be different in different cultures.