Our philosophy of happiness is our consideration of what happiness is and how we can make it happen and optimize it. Calling this a philosophy may seem overstated. But hear me out. When we try to define the objectives and pursuits for our happiness, we often look for orientation, for guidance, for principles - for rules in a wider sense. And certainly, there is no lack of rules affecting us, not all of which are likely to be geared toward serving our happiness. Our parents, family, friends, social contacts, other individuals and groups in society, and society as a whole try to make us abide by their rules. Rules are imposed on us by education, profession, employment, and the economy. Governments and religions subject us to rules. And underlying everything are the rules of nature. We do not receive all rules in a written or verbal form, or by example. Even in the absence of stated rules, circumstances in us and our environment are shaped by rules. And they in turn impose on us their resulting obligations, pathways, limits, and standards that could be called rules. Thus, our existence and its potentials occur within organized structures and processes.

Few rules appear inevitable or mandatory in a sense that we cannot act otherwise if we wanted to. For the vast majority of rules, following them seems to be up to us. But our non-compliance may produce consequences or risks of consequences we may not be willing to take on. Our needs, wishes, and pursuits fall into this category of discretion. Some of their essential parts may seem nonnegotiable if we want to survive or are otherwise hard-pressed in our affairs. Still, we may decide against following their pleas. And we may possess choices how to get to what we absolutely need or want. Past fundamentally critical requirements, we are likely to experience our options opening up more. There may be myriads of paths to choose from at any moment to thrive or get by. But they may conduct us to different intensities or sorts of happiness or unhappiness in the course of their pursuit, at the instant of reaching their destinations, or subsequent thereto. And paths to happiness may be difficult to distinguish from paths to unhappiness. A path toward happiness may lead through unhappiness. Or it may initially show us happiness and then lead to unhappiness. Many paths may offer mediocre results either continuously or in medians of ups and downs. Some may be more trying or costly than others with results more or less reflecting the effort. Paths may in all or in some of their possibilities be undetermined. They may offer prospects of a variety of ratios between risks and potential results. It may be difficult or impossible to foresee where they lead, how we progress on them, and what effect we can have. We may only know how happy or unhappy paths make us after tallies at their end, without ability to compare them to alternatives.

But despite many unknowns, we can be sure that all paths will be governed by rules. The particular sets of rules connected to each path may differ depending on the type of path and the terrain it traverses. They may contain rules for finding or laying out our track and how to build or modify it. They may give it boundaries, prescribe tracks, or grant guardrails. They may encourage, permit, or forbid us to jump or join tracks, take detours, halt, branch off, or reverse. They may condition such and other modifications or give us instructions how to undertake, prevent, or circumvent them. They may tell us how to advance and pace ourselves or how to conduct ourselves if we encounter obstacles, dead ends, forks in the road, poor visibility, or pitfalls. Different rules may apply at different junctures of our path or depending on the selections we make during its pursuit, and rules themselves may change or evolve as we proceed. The list of possible track metaphors goes on.

It is up to us whether we want to find out and think about these rules as much as they can be recognized or anticipated. We may decide to undertake this before we select and embark on a track or while we are on it. But we ignore the rules for our objectives and their pursuit at our risk. This is a risk we may not want to take or at least may want to reduce. We may then resolve to analyze what our needs and wishes are and make plans how to meet them considering the rules for their pursuit. How can we take account of and understand all these rules in ourselves and our environment and how they apply to different paths? Which paths are available and how do we select among them? Which sets of rules apply to which paths? Do we have choices among rules on the same path? And if so, how do we select the right ones for us? How do we select among competing rules and competing systems of rules? Are we blindly or obediently following rules or do we allow ourselves be forced to abide by rules? Do we comply passively or perfunctory or actively support them? Do we take part in their generation, maintenance or enforcement? Do we openly reject rules or covertly work against them? Do we attempt to evade them, change them, or escape them by changing our venue or circumstances? Which rules are immutable or inescapable? What are the possible consequences of non-compliance and how high are the risks? These are questions we must answer to take care of our happiness. And many of our answers will have to be particularized to the situation and may change as we move through life and encounter changes in us or in our surroundings and possibly new paths or sections of paths. Also, the review and application of rules are not linear. Needs and wishes change and means for their fulfillment compete, and we keep having to arrange them. And our pursuits are likely to occur in settings where others are pursuing their happiness. This entails arrangements to get along as well as a significant cooperation potential. Arrangements among people or groups can be a source for formal or informal rules to regulate and guide their existence together. Such arrangements and the rules to administrate them may change in time as contributing factors change and as individuals and societies develop.

We then must cope with the fact that our paths as well as the rise and application of rules we encounter are dynamic processes. We must continually evaluate and re-evaluate paths and their rules and how we can serve our happiness in their context. We also have to cope with the fact that many rules are of a prohibitive character. They may prescribe a framework within which to operate. But they may not tell us how to fill these outer parameters with constructive substance and procedures. Other rules may only give us generally constructive guidance that requires fleshing out and detailing. Or they may only give us tools for pursuits but not tell us how to use them, what to produce with them, or how useful they can be. We also may cast how we respond to circumstances into rules of our own when we detect that this might help us in making faster or better decisions in future similar circumstances. How do we decide this and how do we formulate our rules? Do we even need rules of our own or can or should we rely on other sources? Are things too complicated and varying for rules to make sense? Might they prevent us from addressing issues with the required flexibility? Or should we live in the moment, form our intent then, and apply what we can find when we need or want something? And, regardless of inclination to foresee or plan, we may not possess the luxury of doing so. We stand to encounter situations where no previously applicable or trusted rules seem much help. We may not have the time or information to weigh alternatives. We may have to make choices based on gut feelings, relying on the compass of the entirety of who we are and what we have learned. In such situations, we may not be able to trace decisions in the moment. We may only be able to afterwards assess whether we acted correctly and what to do if similar situations challenge us. But what situations are similar enough to warrant an application of these rules and how do we allow for variables?

This attitude has created a massive market for self-help presentations and books peddling ideas of happiness. Most of these are unhelpful or misleading in too many ways to list them all. A good number of them sell feel-good fluff. They contain naïve opinions and recipes that display their incompetence on their face. Or they suggest niceties that might soothe symptoms of unhappiness or give people a little lift but fail to address deeper questions of happiness. Some publications pretend to give answers to such questions. They cleverly exploit the gullibility of consumers to believe the wildest claims without genuine proof. Others flatter with false, superficial empowerment, including that we each are perfect as is or can do anything we set our mind to, against all obvious evidence of human imperfections and limitations. Still others attempt to implant readers with concepts of what happiness really is or who they should be and how they should act or change their mind to be happy. These tactics are often hyped by success stories, celebrity endorsements, or more remote apparent authorities to add respectability or fashionability.

Not all self-help attempts regarding happiness can be disqualified as superficial, nonsensical, or misleading. Some do offer suggestions about happiness that merit consideration. But these are far and between, and searching for kernels of wisdom in a sea of chaff is frustrating. Often, mere kernels are all there is to a book that promises an abundant harvest. Even with all kinds of anecdotal fillers, illustrations, large print, spacing, margins, thick paper, and other design tricks many of these writings barely make it to book size. It is tiresome to pay good money for and read on and on about a stretched-out idea that could have been described on a few pages. If one spots something that rings true, it is often a commonsense insight that is sensationalized as groundbreaking revelation. Even if we find something of potential utility beyond the trite, its actual utility is frequently compromised. Most of the ideas warranting consideration either stay too general and detached from our lives, focus only on partial aspects of our lives, or vastly overstate the place of a technique or concept in the pursuit of happiness. Even if we can appreciate their utility, there are so many disjointed or contradictory recipes and tips for happiness we could collect that it becomes impossible to make much connected sense of them. Even where propositions elaborate in more detail, they are, with very few exceptions, popularized concepts or parts of concepts loaned from other sources that are better described by these or secondary sources. Beyond that, their popularization habitually includes an entertainment aspect, which as a mere vehicle of conveying information is not objectionable. But this aspect may threaten or be geared to take over the knowledge or skill to be imparted. Worthwhile methods or substance may be packaged with motivational showmanship into events that take on importance of their own for participants’ happiness. They may draw people who wish to overcome their loneliness, to belong, to be acknowledged, to be close to their idol, or to be affected by a positive outlook. Consumers may count fulfillment of these wishes as a significant progress in their happiness and may become conditioned to continue the motivational relationship in dependency and monetization. Strategies exploiting such fragilities convert the idea of self-help into its opposite. They shape funnels and channels of alignment that curb independent judgment and action, thus showing signs of becoming a cult.

Such conversions of the self-help model might be extremes. Still, after reviewing a lot of self-help approaches over the years, I came to the conclusion that, at best, most are a waste of time and money. Even with the better ones, I was regularly glad to have read them at the bookstore or seen a video of them and not having spent any money or any more time on them. At worst, the self-help materials I reviewed threaten to talk victims into investing themselves in ill-conceived or overwrought objectives or strategies that in all likelihood will not pan out. This may cause or worsen unhappiness in vulnerable consumers who may already suffer various degrees of unhappiness and long for more happiness. Whatever the nature and merit of self-help ideas might be, I have not found anything in this category that would do justice to the complexity of happiness even in partial aspects let alone its comprehensive interrelation.

Acknowledging the complexity of happiness may be unpopular with some audiences because it implies that a broad diversity of efforts is and will remain necessary. They would rather hear about a few simple fixes that can propel them to, and keep them in, a happy state. Or they would rather hear superficial suggestions to tell themselves they are actually doing something to improve their happiness when in fact they are not. Just consuming self-help materials may keep them in that imaginary constructive mindset. They may derive rewards from them that are similar to those from watching cooking shows whose recipes one never tries or at least does not incorporate into one’s cooking routines. Just buying self-help books or attending self-help seminars may make us feel better about ourselves. The consumption of such materials may give us permission to give in to fears of leaving our comfort zones by merely reading about leaving it. Purveyors of self-help materials may thus get away with inferior quality or inapplicable suggestions. But they may also respond to such consumer attitudes with diminished depth or detail in their offerings. They may want to avoid being at odds with an audience that prefers easy and quick solutions. Then again, the complexity of happiness is already unpopular with most presenters of happiness propositions since it tends to make their ideas look deficient or small. This has produced an alignment of wishes on both sides of self-help instruction that has prevented an adequately deep and broad discussion of happiness in this field. But maybe this is asking too much from the self-help genre. Maybe one has to turn to higher, more recognized authorities to find more profound treatments of the subject of happiness.

To help us in this undertaking, we may look for rationally based authorities on happiness. We may hope to find them in academic philosophy, recalling what we have been told about it as standard bearer of enlightenment and humanism. And indeed, we can readily identify tendencies and movements in academic philosophy that have been instrumental in placing humanity and humans at the center of inquiry. Still, inadequacy in rational exploration is not restricted to popular and religious propositions concerning happiness. Theories of happiness in philosophy can and do limit themselves as well to favorite themes or tones, neglect aspects of happiness, claim commonsense insights as if they discovered them, and try to sell us on proposals that do not meet our desire for happiness. In many ways, such discussions are just haughtier versions of their self-help cousins, hiding their prejudices and incompetence under a mantle of purported scientific respectability. But then again, they also have surprisingly much in common with a religious approach. A first sign of this is the strange persistence of philosophies of happiness through the ages up to current times with no or little change in these philosophies or attitudes toward them.

Arguably, this could be based on the fact that these philosophies of happiness are ageless for the ages and nothing about them warrants criticizing, adjusting, or developing. However, this is not what I observed. I observed a virtually complete absence of serious attempts to do any of the like. In contrast to other sciences, I could not see any sustained effort to improve the philosophy of happiness by developing it or superseding simpler or incorrect treatments of subjects with better insights. This does not mean that academic philosophy of happiness has not accomplished a progression of thought. It did occur because later philosophers considered work of their predecessors. But in very few instances is this progression documented to scientific points of actual advancement that improve on prior stages or leave them behind. Rather, authorities stand typically detached adjacent to all that came before and followed. Apparently, philosophers and their works, once they entered the pantheon of authority, became untouchable. Serious investigations into the relevance of their statements have been replaced, if they ever existed, with inferences of relevance based on that they made them. This pantheon of recognized authorities has been closely protected by a small community of academic gatekeepers who have been resolutely opposed to seriously criticizing any of its members and only accepting new pantheon members and gatekeepers who agree. As a result, philosophical treatments of philosophical authorities mostly bow to them in great reverence, keep them enshrined, and only dare to add translations, respectful comparisons, or interpretations to fix gaffs or gaps. Similar to the administration of religious belief systems, the principal objective of philosophical gatekeeping regarding happiness appears to be a defense of the authority and the purity of its teachings at any cost. With this restrictive stance, institutional philosophy has become a musty, rationally disguised religion in its small, sequestered world, complete with gods, priests, dogmas, denominations, seminaries, confirmations, and ordinations. Its loyal canonization of venerated philosophical authorities and teachings has stifled discussion and progression regarding the philosophy of happiness. In comparison with religious belief systems, this has occurred with a less open but not any less effective passive-aggressive enforcement. As a chosen consequence, academic philosophy has generally reduced itself on the subject of happiness to endlessly ruminating and teaching its history. For any other theoretical or practical concern, philosophy of happiness is a dead science, if it ever was alive. All arguments in self-interested justification to the contrary fail for lack of evidence.

This self-disqualification of the philosophy of happiness as conglomerate of quasi-religions might in some respects be connected to the self-preservation of its institutions and their representatives. But it also has an important tradition in the circumstance that philosophy of happiness has had a most difficult time over the millennia to rid itself of religious domination and interference. Until recently, rational arguments had to be consistently and carefully clad in religious sourcing and affirmation to keep their authors out of trouble and to give their assertions any chance of finding consideration and acceptance. There is also broad indication that philosophers themselves restricted and filtered their thoughts and findings through the optics of the religions they embraced. Others were theologians and developed philosophical thoughts based on their belief systems. A third variety of philosophers established, intentionally or unintentionally, new religions or creeds. Even attempts to escape religious control were frequently affected by religious principles in that such attempts deemed it necessary to assume drastically opposing stances of beliefs to overcome religious control. By the sum of these religious influences, beliefs restrained and skewed the philosophy of happiness as a rational science and kept it from developing. By the time the philosophy of happiness had a healthier chance of developing independently, the traditions of philosophical institutions had already been firmly established. This explains in part why it continued in the same canonized vein by only selectively including contributions that developed within its traditions and did not rock the boat of past teachings.

Some may argue that, regardless of the past problems and current state of a philosophy of happiness, there is a prolific and long tradition of venerated minds deeply searching and thinking about rational answers to problems of happiness. Why should we not trust them to have discovered most or all of the answers when they and many others say they did? I once had those exact convictions and attitudes as well. I believed in the ordering powers of philosophy. However, my exhaustive search for theoretical and practical guidance on happiness among these supposedly great authorities resulted in almost complete disappointment. A disappointment so great that it caused me to lose interest in philosophy altogether for some time.

Let me tell you how this disappointment came about. When I started studying philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, I did that in support of my legal studies, not to find any answers regarding happiness. I was interested in philosophical foundations of laws and legal systems, going by the name of legal theory or philosophy of law. And I found these foundations of law in my studies of philosophy. But I rapidly understood that many of my fellow students were studying philosophy to find answers to questions about their lives, were looking for, if not specific answers, at least for a guiding framework. I recall my favorite professor responding to that expectation, stating in an introductory course that philosophy does not provide such guiding substance. Rather, he said, it teaches us analytical tools, mental flexibility, and tolerance for the validity of alternative approaches. I liked the mental gymnastics aspect. But philosophy not offering substantive answers to humanity’s problems seemed to betray what I had been told throughout my life previously. I had grown up with the idea that philosophy was the fountain of wisdom for the improvement of the human condition. I had thought of legal organization as an important part to this improvement. But if there were no substantive values at the basis of legal arrangements, they could easily decline into detrimental states of all sorts. This concern made me realize that my interest in philosophy motivated by legal concerns had to be at its core an interest in human happiness. I could not accept the professor’s pronouncement and was determined to prove him wrong. In following years, I read every book and article I could find on the philosophy of happiness in the library of the Philosophical Seminary, at times branching out to the Theological Seminary nearby. Along the way, I became friends with the lady guarding the library entrance in the evening and the janitor assuring nobody was locked in at closing. But as much as I tried, nothing I read impressed me that philosophy had produced an authoritative understanding of happiness beyond rudimentary concerns at the basis of legal order.

One of the most surprising results of my intense research was that philosophers could rarely agree on a definition of happiness. Many recited obvious basics. But almost as many discussed these basics only to derive or validate reductions, particularizations, perversions, and exaggerations they could use to build idiosyncratic versions of happiness. Others did not dwell on fundamentals, advancing straight to favored premises and explanations. Reading these definitions suggested to me they were competing who could come up with the most eccentric distancing from experiences of happiness. Many of them made a point claiming regular experiences do not qualify as happiness or at best at a lower echelon. It was therefore not very surprising that the authorities coining these disparate definitions would arrive at very different, often absurd instructions on reaching or maintaining happiness.

Another result of my research was that apparent summaries in secondary references were often pretty much all there was to the original texts. The reasons for this were many times not to be found in their authors’ intent. Rather, I discovered that sadly scores of texts authored by acknowledged authorities had not survived. At times, the only way one would know about these texts or even their authors is by reference or citation in other authors’ writings that did survive. One can only speculate about the loss humankind incurred from losing these texts. However, to the extent there was a record of the titles or subject matters of these texts, I could not see much of a loss for purposes of my research. And reading surviving fragments and attempts to piece them together to a philosophy did not impress me either. On the contrary, it made me wonder why so much attention has been given to them by institutional philosophy. I suspected this was due to a transfer of status from famous philosophers who cited them. Even where classic or other works were intact, most addressed issues of happiness in summary fashion. For commonsense principles, this was par for the course. But most authorities were not content stating those but tried to add a twist or derivative theory. However, they did not bother much with legitimization or expression of their premises, working out their arguments, or consequences of their theories. Rather, most introduced nonobvious premises for their theories, or theories themselves, as plainly observable truths. Numerous stances were not clearly expressed, many arguments never completed or advanced to a full theory. Thus, their modifying or additional points appeared like cursory outlines of ideas. In many instances, the fragmentary and poorly constructed arguments destroyed any credibility that their authors’ recognition of commonsense general principles might have built. Credibility was also diluted by a pervasive failure to establish reasonable connections of philosophies of happiness to a universe of general principles, beyond some of them that were picked and interpreted in support. Reading these treatments of happiness made me wonder how they could have risen to such prominence and reverence in philosophical circles.

Then I found quite a number of philosophers who thought to have discovered the key to happiness in one or a few aspects of the human experience or in certain virtues. Quite a number of them seemed to give such arguments their all, writing extensively, at times obsessively, to demonstrate the reasonability of their partiality. Often, a reasonable argument might be made that there was something to what they advocated. Some were even brilliant in analyzing and describing subjects of their research. But their quite obviously unsupportable insistence that this relatively narrow slice was the whole pie or close to it, and their desertion and disregard of major aspects of human happiness made them appear pitifully limited. Here again, I wondered how such obviously deficient theories could find reception, respect, and even applause.

Still, such miscues could not equal works by acknowledged authorities that, with exception maybe of a few hints regarding their general concepts and intent, just did not make sense or were so ambiguous that they could serve as grounds for incongruent varieties of interpretations. Stylistically convoluted, bizarre or undefined in their language, and devoid of serious attempts to make themselves understood, these ramblings made me question their seriousness and the sanity of their authors. Reading their translations into other languages confirmed an exponential compounding of their mystery for readers. The enormous difficulty or sheer impossibility of deciphering much of what these texts state has protected them from criticism. It has also protected those who claim to understand them, making others who honestly cannot fathom these writings feel like there must be something wrong with their intellect or learning. For fear of being branded as imperceptive, honest readers are tempted to chime in with those who falsely claim to comprehend the works. They might even elevate their pretense and take advantage of the confusion by feigning additional insights in attempts to acquire indisputable cachet. As the number of disingenuous scholars and readers increases, soon nobody might be left with the courage or standing to state the truth. Or many who know better keep silent since the vague, incomprehensible, and absurd cannot be intelligently discussed. The result is vain foolishness, not science.

Reviewing these works or fragments of works, I could not help noticing that a sizeable share of the philosophical authorities had failed for whatever reason to sufficiently state or support their theories or even ideas on happiness. For some this was an obvious side issue they came across in other pursuits and felt compelled to remark something about in passing. But, surprisingly, others who made happiness an important ingredient or the focal point of their attention also allowed themselves shortcuts in their premises and deductions. Their apparent reliance in assertions about happiness on their personal impressions and hearsay of their own authority disqualifies their attempted contributions as opinions. Interesting as they might be, they fall short of the requisite that extraordinary claims must be backed by extraordinary evidence, including clarity of such evidence. Others may grant to such authors more benefits of the doubt. They may pick through works to construe something worthwhile where their authors could not be troubled, or were incapable of, doing so. Some secondary writers have made careers from trying to join loose ends, fill voids, or reconcile contradictions through interpretations and reasoned speculations. Valiant as these attempts might be, they cannot make a sensible whole of something ill-conceived or incomplete.

Without doubt, some traditional philosophical authorities offer general insights and principles that could be, and some of which have proven, beneficial. But having a significant philosopher state them does not add to them because they are observations of common phenomena and derivative commonsense considerations. Like in religious doctrine, these observations and considerations are nothing more than restatements of principles that were preexisting in some expression and tradition. As beneficial as collecting and stating such general insights might be, they do not mend unknown holes in human knowledge. Arguably, the restatement of basic principles by philosophical greats added authority to these statements. In that sense, philosophy may claim to have added to human organization around basic needs. However, this involved a process across the span of human civilization in which incomplete, incorrect, and rough statements of fundamental principles cumulatively began to show definition. Though far from perfect, this contributory genesis was to be preferred to enable the emergence of common basic principles in the definition and pursuit of happiness. Too much authority along the way could have cast it into a mold that could have hindered or blocked its development. And in a few cases philosophical authority did have this effect temporarily. Deference to authority might have kept, and during some periods did keep, subjects from questioning its statements and from referring to their own general experiences and considerations as comparable humans. The restatements of commonsense observations and derivative principles by acknowledged philosophical authorities could then have been counterproductive.

As it was, the commonsense nature of basic principles was mostly able to break through faulty interpretations and leave them behind. Where statements by philosophical authorities regarding fundamental principles are apposite, their general nature does not tell us much beyond basics of happiness. Their usefulness is exhausted by cataloging the common nature of humans, including their basic needs, wishes, and pursuits, and deriving therefrom the foundations for individual and social organization. Individual organizational foundations are about the essentials of arranging needs and wishes and their pursuit in a setting marked by individual effort. The social organizational foundations include a basic legal order and basic rights and obligations that are derived from the common nature of humans. As important as these principles are, their commonsense nature made them easily detectable, especially for professionals looking for them. Nevertheless, it took philosophy millennia to collect these insights to some level of maturity and systematic classification. This may suggest that philosophy did more to misguide or hinder human development than contributing to it. But this suggestion may grant philosophy too much credit for affecting humanity’s development. Apart from some temporary exceptions, it appears to have been ignored in the past as much as it is unnoticed today. Then again, even if it did not have much authority over how humans acted at any time, it could have arranged itself to speak clearly with a common voice on basic human rights and obligations. That this did not happen for such a long time until rather recently speaks volumes about institutionalized philosophy of happiness. In fact, it supports significant indications that these principles have become widely recognized and entrenched by action of other social forces, and only were picked up by philosophy as signs of the times. Still, social movements may have benefitted from the reinjection and voicing of their concerns and possible solutions through philosophies.

We may then give some credit to recognized philosophies of happiness for humanity’s advancement toward a vital milestone, even if their contribution was slow and marred by misdirection. But we should further acknowledge that this is merely the starting point in the liberation and empowerment of individuals to dream and to pursue their dreams. Basic principles are by their nature not much addressed to assisting us in selecting our objectives and pursuits as individuals beyond commonalities. In this respect, philosophies of happiness have given even less guidance. In as far as philosophies focusing on human basics have commented on individual pursuits, this occurs mostly in arguments identifying them as building blocks of a societal scheme, to describe them as examples of aberrations from favored practices, or to prove a point of philosophy not for their individual sake. Despite some acknowledgement of individual aspects to happiness, the institutional philosophy of happiness has thus failed to significantly contribute to helping individuals in developing them.

The poor performance of philosophy in advancing philosophy of happiness has not kept it from regularly congratulating itself on the subject. Despite the various shortcomings of philosophical writings on happiness, a limited number of them are endlessly cited, interpreted, listed, and compared in academic circles for their incestuous purposes or to elicit interest in non-academics. This frequently involves claimed actualizations of classic philosophies by more contemporary beliefs or insights. Few months pass by without an embellished rechewing of the usual theories that never had much taste to begin with. This seemingly endless caravan of iterations what philosophers or confirming current authorities claim to have found out about happiness evidences how little they bear upon our reality and are able to advise on it now. There is good reason why most recited philosophies failed to find traction outside academic or selected other circles and remain largely inconsequential. The real world has passed on, and passed by, these philosophies. They will never earn much acclaim there because they are patchy, trivial, or unrealistic.

For those new to these purported authorities on happiness, it may be of some initial interest to find out what famous philosophers have said about happiness. And it may be cool to tell others about what one read to take and hold one’s place in an educated conversation. But think about this: If there was practical substance to any of these classic teachings or claimed actualizations, why are they not widely practiced after leads of hundreds or sometimes thousands of years? Why do they require desperate repetitive marketing? Where is the result of any of them in the real world, in the lives of people, in their happiness? I have not heard of anybody saying, “I read about this philosophy, applied what I read, and am so much happier now.” And why is it that we see the same old philosophies of at least the last two and a half thousand years regurgitated and compared without any serious attempt of developing them? Does that fact not bespeak that they are dead ends incapable of development? These stale, geriatric philosophies still carry a historical interest and may provide plentiful material for further research by such interests. But for someone trying to find a philosophy of happiness that gives practical guidance, these teachings are with very few exceptions a thorough waste of time and effort. They are intellectual placebos that cannot address the malady of human unhappiness. Apparently, many who have sampled the classics have arrived at this realization. This is why these philosophers and their works on how a human life should be organized are largely missing from contemporary discourse and why so many who look for answers are turning to other authorities.

No harm no foul then. But this is not the entire history or present of philosophy of happiness. Philosophies that actually did or do have effects are regularly excluded from philosophical showboat reviews since they did not do well for humanity. These black sheep in the philosophy of happiness family are called ideologies. Their source is a conviction that other people should be like their creators and promoters or should adopt what these deem worthwhile objectives and pursuits. Although ideologies reflect subjective mindsets and preferences, they are comprehensive teachings that seem to have answers for all or most issues of human existence. If an ideology does not already contain comprehensive coverage of its subjects’ concerns at its creation, it regularly develops such coverage. It does this to disguise its subjectivity and to prevent subjects from turning to their own judgment or to other influences. To assist themselves with this objective, ideologies embed idiosyncratic philosophies of what happiness is and how it should be pursued in generally acceptable ideas. But they spin them into directions or add to them in self-serving ways. To not give away the subjective character of their spin, they regularly attempt to sell it as a general principle or a derivative of recognized general principles. Only some may openly advocate others comply with their idiosyncratic standards. They may be able to afford this if they can attract followers by qualities that make followers long to be like or with charismatic creators or spokespersons of an ideology, or if they long to be part of an ideology’s membership.

However ideologies may ingratiate themselves, they are intrinsically flawed because they dismiss and try to override the extensive uniqueness of happiness. For the sake of justifying their idea of a larger system, they have to fight the idea that happiness is subjective and individual in nature. They must fight the notion that telling others what happiness is and how to pursue it is denying them their individual dignity and reality. To attend to the subjective ideas of their creators or promoters, they must convincingly argue happiness can be found in conformance with their subjective ideas as common ideals. Set on suppressing or manipulating us toward that objective, ideologies are keen on preventing subjects from unfolding distinct paths toward happiness. They may therefore induce or preserve conditions that keep us preoccupied with securing our existential requirements. Even by placing or keeping us in apprehension of insecurity regarding fundamental needs, they may have us switch to an emergency mode in which we give up on our particularities and fall in line. Understanding and controlling common fears and desires enables ideologies to make masses of subjects think, feel, and act according to their ideas. Ideologies take hold by suggesting to address our existential concerns through their ideas. To supplement their domination of our ways, they often suggest that individualized pursuits of happiness are pointless or harmful. Or they try to funnel or shape the individuality of our pursuits into conforming activities. They may also use archaic tribal and hierarchic notions that make us subordinate to and serve the greater good they purport to represent.

The essential lie of ideologies in trying to sell their subjective stance as generally indicated,  objective truth makes them worthless. It also makes them dangerous because it produces oppressive ideas. Followers are likely to believe that people who disagree just have not seen the light of what is good for them and can justifiably be forced into happiness. Or they may turn the idea against themselves and resolve to subject themselves for their own good to the objectives and pursuits of an ideology even against their inclinations. Thus, ideologies incite zeal to convert oneself and others. They must do this because their objective is a practical implementation of their vision, and achieving this by artificial alignment demands comprehensive domination and management. It is then not a coincidence that ideological ambitions, strategies, and potentials resemble those of religions. To assert a comprehensive coverage of all concerns of their subjects, ideologies must not only suppress, but fundamentally replace, religions as contenders. To succeed at this, but also as a matter of their own dynamics resulting from their claim to power, ideologies tend to organize and act a lot like some religions. Their foundation and organization by a visionary and a select number of promoting individuals who build and administrate a comprehensive control apparatus to implement their doctrine closely resemble the hierarchy of some religions. And like some religions, ideologies are susceptible to be hijacked by interests intent on abusing ideologies for their personal interests. In this usurpation, impostors can take advantage of the fact that the underlying philosophies of ideological movements and these movements themselves already constitute reflections of subjective viewpoints claiming objective applicability. They can therefore rather easily assume power under a pretense of perpetuating the ideology or saving it against internal or external enemies. They may use gaps, limits, or ambiguities in the original dogma to expand or fill these with their ideas, at times perverting ideologies or propelling them to extremes. Or they may introduce more efficient or effective ways to exert power.

In an ultimate semblance to religions, and as a direct consequence of their thriving on exigencies, ideologies have divided humanity in tribal camps that are ill-disposed to one another without much ability to reach out across dividing lines. Their members are largely locked into their ideologies because their stances are not based on their sound judgment, but dogma that does not allow them to think or feel independently for themselves. This separation not only prevents people from cooperating. It also creates the source for endless conflicts in the defense of the dogmas and tribes formed around them. This is particularly so because ideological dogmas claim absolute truth. They cannot admit that there are other ways to define and pursue happiness, because this is the essence of their claim to power. Resulting adversities are not dreaded but welcomed by ideologies because they cement the exigencies they require to obtain and maintain their hold over subjects. Their insistence has cost humanity a persistent denial of happiness, and has inflicted pervasive misery and death. Even where an ideology is able to implement its ideas undisturbed, these consequences tend to follow. They may follow even more severely because an ideology in this situation possesses the luxury of implementing its subjectivities to their bitter end. The assertions by authors of ideologies that they are bound to result in happiness for subjects assumes responsibility for the happiness of these subjects. This raises a duty in these authors to foresee and forecast negative potentials of their ideologies and to close the door on such potentials even if they benevolently believe the world can benefit from their ways. Authors of ideologies regularly fail such caution or courage to describe possible or actual downsides of their ideologies. Their failure may be due to lack of impartiality that led them to conceive of their ideology in the first place, and the resulting lack of foresight. But it may also arise because they quite rightly fear that raising caveats would weaken the adoption of their ideologies. So instead of creating ideologies that might be manageable because they incorporate some elements of truth, they bring to life monstrosities. By this lack of self-criticism, most ideologies become unviable and destroy any chance of lasting influence. This chance seems slim to begin with. Because of their idiosyncrasies, the required numbers of followers may not materialize. Even if they succeed, followers will find out sooner or later that the represented objectives and pursuits do not match theirs. Ideologies may then follow an inherent logic of burning out. This may occur by gradual decline and peaceful transition to a more popular movement. All too often, though, ideologies continue their rigid trajectory and burn out in an inferno of their insistence.

Even where such consequences have not yet occurred, ideologies are systemically incapable of improving the happiness of their followers. The benefits they might offer come at a disproportionately high cost even under the best circumstances because of what ideologies require for their own sake. In many ways, they resemble religions without the dimension of transcendental happiness. Their negative effects compound for people outside of the ideologies who have to endure their overbearing nature as adversaries. Intentionally or unintentionally, they serve somebody else’s needs and wishes first. Subjects’ needs and wishes are regularly allowed only in conformance with ideologies. This may not be by direct mandate and enforcement, but indirectly by way of settings ideologies create for individuals within which to pursue their happiness. Subjects may be self-policing to get along and not imperil the happiness and security they have achieved or can achieve in the system. This may reserve intervention by the system to disturbances that do not resolve themselves at the subject level. More advanced ideologies also permit subjects to carve out pieces of self-determination in some aspects of happiness that do not contradict the system or are negligible to it. This creates valves for unhappiness that subjects experience from compliance against their wishes. And it serves as distraction to the detection of and resistance to a regime’s oppressive nature. It permits systems to claim with superficial justification subjects are able to secure happiness their own way within the system. The indirect nature of a system together with the small pieces of freedom it allows may help to make subjects lose sight of how firmly embedded they truly are. If managed sensibly, such strategies can add to the longevity of an ideology until the system encounters or produces conditions that reveal substantial differences of objectives and pursuits between the regime and its subjects.

But clever strategies are not the only reasons why ideologies about happiness have successfully managed to run our lives in major aspects. The main reason is that we not only let them into the door, but welcome them. We do this because our happiness is our encompassing, overarching prime need. We chronically thirst for happiness and our inability to create or keep enough happiness may drive us into the arms of an ideology that promises to make it all good. When calamities strike that deprive us of the fulfillment of existential needs or we suffer fear of such deprivation, ideologies find even the more self-reliant of us at our most vulnerable. These are moments when we are most ready to hand over the reigns over our life to someone who credibly promises to fix things. We already discussed that these dynamics encourage ideologies to create or perpetuate endangerment and its actualization. They may do so primarily to offer themselves as saviors. And these may succeed distracting us from our paths to happiness because there are now more pressing problems we need to solve. However, such intrigues may be unnecessary and their grand scale makes them difficult to implement anyway unless an ideology has already ascended to power. It seems much more widespread that ideologies emerge when, or bide their time until, calamities arise from extraneous sources. And even in the absence of a notable calamity, we may be receptive to the lure of ideologies. We may consider them because we always look for a better life and ideologies try to make us believe they have it all figured out for us. This becomes more likely if we identify parts of their teachings as applicable to us or parts of their system as helpful. We may concede some tradeoffs or baggage that trail along if an ideology seems capable of helping us produce happiness in sizeable ranges of our concerns. And we may like the idea that all concerns are taken care of in an ideology even if we will have to press ourselves into its mold to meet this goal. Ideologies might need this attractant to establish their rule because no sufficient exigency exists or can be created. They might at least initially play to these concerns, which tend to hide their less agreeable aspects, risks, and ultimate intent. They may encounter diminished thresholds in people looking for guidance to subject themselves willingly or allowing ideologies to take over. However, once we allow a system to take hold that obstructs or prevents our choices in parts where we disagree, we have sold parts of our souls. We might think we will be able to examine and modify the system or remove us from it and pursue our own path if we deem the price becoming too high down the road. The problem with this is often that systems may charge a discouraging high price for not going along or forbid noncompliance altogether. Then again, we may already have resigned to continue in a system after becoming embedded in it since extracting ourselves from it might be too painful or if there is no viable alternative for us outside the system.

All these issues suggest that following ideologies originating in the minds of others is generally a foul idea to pursue one’s happiness. Once we understand the track record of ideologies, it may not take much more to have us realize that they cannot lead us toward happiness, at least not the best happiness we can reasonably imagine. But what alternative is there beyond the sources we already considered? Maybe we need to replace our emotional intuition with scientific evidence.

So where does a review of self-help, religious, philosophical, and further scientific approaches toward human happiness leave us in our search for guidance? On one hand I think we have reason to be encouraged by an emerging awareness and respect for fundamental human needs and the conditions for their pursuit. One the other, I have been disheartened by the lack of universal recognition and support for resulting existential human rights. Many authorities deliver lip service to human rights, but they do not expend much effort establishing them and their modalities. The interactions, practicalities, and obstacles of existential human rights are not being sufficiently addressed by such authorities. As apparently minor application details, they are being left to societal, governmental, and international organizations, some of which were started by these authorities. These organizations declare basic human rights in commandments, charters, and constitutions. Yet, the application of these general declarations is habitually frayed, twisted, restricted, or ignored, by political, cultural, or personal influences. Since these rights express fundamentals defined by existential needs, they are accessible to universal insight by any human. They are also open to the direct insight that, as bare existential basics, they should apply absolute. Applications could benefit from unequivocal statements, explanations, and positions by authorities to this effect. Authoritative perseverance of what these principles are and how they should be applied would go a long way. Then again, lack of insight is not the problem in the application context. People are aware when they violate other humans’ existential rights simply by the sense that they would not want to suffer the infractions they commit. The problem is rather that authorities have resigned the application of human rights to groups and organizations many of which are the primary candidates to subvert or prevent applications when it fits them. Some efforts have been made to move judgment and enforcement of human rights away from such bodies. But these measures do not have real teeth because they only exist at the permission of the very organizations they are to govern.

Hoping for a supra-national organization with full capabilities to assess, adjudicate, and counteract violations of existential human rights is unrealistic. However, the establishment of a super-authority would also be problematic because it could be hijacked by nefarious interests or give rise to tribal conflict. Instead, the universal character of basic human rights and the common access to understanding them suggests decentralization of administrative functions to each of us individually and together. If everybody who suffers a human rights violation speaks and acts up and everybody who witnesses or hears of such a violation does so as well, existential human rights will become a universal reality. Short of that, it is hard to say whether and how much humanity is advancing, and how much it can advance, toward universal conceptualization, affirmation, and enforcement of existential human rights. I believe this outlook on required remedies is as fundamental as the rights they are to protect. That ethical authorities have not mounted a determined, united effort to provide theoretical and practical guidance in making basic human rights the universal reality they proclaim to be due speaks for itself. Although they should muster the necessary insight and make maximum use of their influences, they mostly stand by idly or only as commentators as individuals the world over battle on their own to secure the fundamentals for their happiness. This renunciation of responsibility by authorities has a long tradition that is only sporadically interrupted by rogue elements among them. History in not in any shape to deal out merit badges to any ethical authorities for advancing basic human rights. The incomplete, half-hearted recognition and recitation by such authorities is inacceptable.

Another great disappointment in my review of self-help, religious, philosophical, and other scientific approaches toward human happiness is the lack of help for individuals to find their way beyond these fundamentals. Contrary to widespread claims and attributions of authority and substance, there is very little for us to work with at our individual level. No doubt, there are a number of good bits of advice or interesting objectives or methods that we might or even should try to see how they suit and benefit us. Some of the suggestions I surveyed might give us a temporary boost or assist us more sustainably. But in the end, these were relatively small answers to the much bigger problem of human happiness. I could not locate anything that would promote us as individuals to advance above the insecurity, error, and resulting dissatisfaction that a lack of orientation, preparation, and planning brings. Worse than this, I found that our search for human happiness in self-help, religious, philosophical, and other scientific approaches to happiness carries great potential to lead us astray and damage our happiness, down to existential levels. In terms of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” all the emperor wears for his big parade is underpants. And he might be a charlatan, oppressive fraud, and an instigator or purveyor of pain and disaster. In other words, we have shamefully little to revere but much to fear about those who tell us how to live our life.

If you think of dismissing what I say, first think of the probability of my conclusion from a commonsense viewpoint. If someone asked us to submit our concerns to the direction of strangers and trust that they can and will look out for our interests before theirs, most of us would pause. We would have sufficient common sense to view this proposition with greatest caution. We would inquire about their motives. We would not allow ourselves to be blindsided by the fact that these unfamiliar persons can point to credentials and authority. If anything, bragging with who they are, rather than proving to us the truth of what they say, should raise our defenses even more because it makes them more suspect in their intentions and capable to deceive or abuse us. We would not permit them to lead us without having reviewed their track record. And we would not let ourselves be swayed by the fact that many others obey them. We would not let others talk us into something that does not pass muster under our BS meter or that violates common sense. These are principles of a sound judgment most of us have learned during childhood and that we apply in everyday encounters. Why are we throwing this better sense to the wind when it comes to the direction of our life? Why would we ignore that creators and promoters of systems and fragmented ideas are commanded by their individual interests like everybody else? Why would we not ask what is in it for them if we follow? Why would we not see they could not tell what we want or how we want to pursue it if they wanted to?

Obvious exceptions to these issues are sources merely stating commonsense principles of human happiness. We may seek out and peruse such sources to lay open and develop our understanding of common basics of happiness shared by all humans. We should run them through our mind with judicious caution, but we have the capacity of analyzing and dismissing or confirming them with common sense. As part of our review, we need to remain guarded that the sources we accept in fact limit their scope to common principles. An honest assessment of general aspects of happiness would necessarily be limited to principles humans can recognize as common. It cannot give individualized guidance beyond common principles because nothing else can in honesty be claimed to apply with commonsensical universality. Only erroneous, thoughtless, or fraudulent statements transgress this boundary. Unfortunately, such deviations abound, and we need to remain vigilant against them posturing as general principles. Establishing a firm understanding of the common basics of human happiness is indispensable because of their existential importance and because they are the foundations for launching individual pursuits. In spite of achievements in this regard, the frequently incomplete level and the persistent violations of fundamental rights prove that we must as of yet still be reminded of them to establish and preserve this common foundational happiness for every human. Sadly, societies have in alarmingly many instances not advanced to recognize all such foundations, or not to their full scope. And there is continuing and recurring justification not to take foundations for granted even if they are present at the time. In many instances, people might not generate or internalize and practice these basic principles on their own, or at least not consistently. So far, it seems necessary to cast these basics into rules supported by authority they recognize and even fear. Commonsense principles of happiness must be enforced by codes or laws to make people comply or at least not damage others with their non-compliance. But these codifications only mark outer limits imposed by mostly prohibitive laws. They cannot fill the basic principles of human happiness with the positive substance they require to benefit us by our doing or by reciprocity and mutual care. It is difficult to get people to act on principles that find their source in love, compassion, solidarity, and decency if they do not exhibit these qualities on their own. Maybe people can be convinced to display these qualities if they are hidden or inhibited in them. Maybe the types of commonsense sources of human happiness we reviewed in self-help, religious, philosophical, and empiric science contexts can play a role in this. To various degrees, this has been their function all along. But the motivation for engaging them must come from inside of us.

However deficient humans have been in accepting common sources and principles of happiness, we can place hope in the recent trend of codifying and practicing human rights and obligations on the basis of a common nature as humans. We can take faith in in the growing societal support for protection of, and active assistance for, the fulfillment of basic human needs. The more fortunate of us live in legal orders where such rights and societal care is more or less recognized, although there may be remaining questions to be resolved. Having this footing for our setting of objectives and pursuits is more precious than we might realize if we have never had to fight for these basics. We have reason to be very happy about this growing achievement of humanity we get to enjoy. However, having these basics secured, we also realize that this is not the entirety of our happiness. We can have all our fundamental needs satisfied and still yearn for happiness. We can still search aimlessly not even knowing why we are restless. In fact, we may blame the fulfillment of our basic needs as a reason for our lack of fulfillment. On first blush that does not seem to make sense. When we are deprived of basic necessities, we tend to believe we could be happy once they are fulfilled. But we cannot be happy for long in a system that fulfills basic needs only generically without individualization. Without impressing our customized objectives and ways on the fulfillment of basic needs, their securing seems to lose much value for us. We do not just want to exist but want to form our existence. This is also why we cannot be happy in a system that claims existential basics of human existence to be all there is to our happiness and that individualized paths beyond a general organization are superfluous or illegitimate. Imagining how it would be having to live in such a system demonstrates to us how important our individual articulations of happiness are and how important it is that we are involved in bringing them into reality.

And yet most systems do not give us much of a clue about how to find our individual articulations of happiness. That may be understandable because idiosyncrasies in our setting of objectives and their pursuit might detract from the principles of systems. Most work best when their parts or members fit into predictable molds and act in predictable ways, which may therefore be the primary concern of systems. Individual articulations may be an irritant for most. This is how we can distinguish whether a system is geared toward assisting us or assisting somebody else who benefits from its order. But maybe a system knows its fair instrumental place. Maybe it only addresses the fundamentals of human needs in as far as they can be reasonably covered in a systematic way, leaving individual articulations of basics and wishes beyond to its inhabitants. This freedom may be unnerving or frightening for many of us, especially if we originate from a setting where individuality was systematically suppressed, limited, or guided. Nevertheless, the opportunity to build our individual happiness is connected to the presence of this free space, this void, with all its uncertainties and insecurities.

Filling this void with independently derived strategies that maximize our happiness may be a new proposition for most of us. This is why we might look for assistance. Constructing our individual happiness does not mean that we could or should not avail ourselves of assistance, as long as we reserve a considered discretion about its utility and use. We just have to be careful that we do not fall again into a mode where we allow others to tell us what makes us happy and how we should pursue happiness. That there is very little non-overbearing assistance on finding our individual path toward happiness may sound surprising. It might come as a shock to people who like I have held out hope that the important answers to our happiness already have been arrived at and confirmed. My surprise dates back decades to the start of my studying philosophy and decades of experiences confirming that initial surprise.

It must be so much more difficult for someone who until more recently has been accustomed to trust, respect, or at least condone the system in which they live. It has to be difficult to institute the necessary judgment distance if one has grown up in, or has long been surrounded by, an established system that defines one’s normal. And it may be even more difficult to find such distance when people have been attracted to such a system or found protection in it when their happiness was under threat. They might stay defensive of their familiar system in prejudiced gratitude and might fear the task of building a system of their own into a relative unknown. They might survey worse specimens of conceptual rabbit holes and come to the conclusion that theirs is not that bad in comparison. They may be swayed by the propaganda of a system. People may be particularly set in their ways if the system in which they live is merely interested in regulating a relatively small portion of their pursuits. Or its regulation may be so indirect that its presence may not be perceived at all or not as prohibitive obstacle. The limited nature of impositions, indirectness, or public relations of a system governing our ideas of happiness may cause hesitation appreciating its using us, its patronizing us, or its holding us back. We may not fathom that we are being kept and may behave similar to children in an authoritative household. We may not realize that we are taught and mostly accept how to conduct ourselves, what to think, and what to believe. We may be comfortable with this as a continuation of childhood conditioning, which in all likelihood already prepared us to get along in and with the system. Throughout history and modern times, humans have regularly agreed, or at least acquiesced, with paternalistic governance. But ask yourself: How has following recognized authorities worked out?

Why do so many look for answers in mostly foolish self-help books, why do scores turn on religious teachings, why do they think philosophy is a dead elitist pastime with no practical value, why do they grasp at straws of happiness studies? Why, unless these traditional sources for happiness instruction have failed them? Beyond that, do you see any followers of any recognized authority being significantly happier? Even if they should say so, their accounts are likely compromised. A lot of people stuck in a system ordering and prescribing their ways may know better. But they might be afraid of internal or external repercussions if they state or act otherwise. They might want to perpetuate or complete their delusion that someone else’s ideas about happiness apply to them. And, as people walk down a misguided path long enough, they may be in too deep with their minds and life circumstances. They might not be able or dare to imagine concepts and paths of their own or admit that they have missed major opportunities of self-determination along the way, major opportunities of a happy life. Admitting to themselves or to others whose opinion they respect that they took a wrong turn or never tried to take their own direction may be too painful. They may faithfully or desperately continue following tracks that someone else laid out for them. They may even deny this is occurring. So not everybody may be able or possess the courage to admit there is something wrong with how their life has proceeded so far, that something important is missing or could be improved. And maybe there isn’t. Maybe they are already happy enough.

Maybe the system in which they find themselves embedded happens to match their values or has succeeded in aligning their mind. Maybe they have been savvy or fortunate enough to carve out their happiness exactly the way they see fit. Maybe they regard what they were able to accomplish in a system good enough to not risk it. They may have managed to reduce their world to a shell in which they have succeeded to secure a measure of happiness. Maybe their happiness is reliant on maintaining structures and processes that take advantage of others in the system. Maybe they benefit from the resident type of the mental-industrial complex that has smothered, deceived, and stunted humanity in most civilized reaches of the earth. Such people may not be interested in acknowledging the emperor wears no clothes or what his qualities are for various reasons. They may rely on or be a constituent of the empire. Change may jeopardize their way of making a living. They may not see a choice or deem their contributions objectionable.

Then there are those with a closed mind who absolutely believe in the system and follow it without knowing better and without doubt. They short-circuit any criticism of rules the system has instructed them to live by to automatic rejection. Such fanatics may also pose problems for the emancipation of others. They may be willing enforcers for a system they deem to be the foundation of their happiness and, true to its character as a system, the happiness of everybody else in its reach. They may see any disagreement with the system as attack on its working for them. Unless they encounter a systematic crisis that unbalances them, no amount of talk may be able to reach them and free them of a restrictive system because their mindset prevents them from listening and fairly considering what they hear.

But then there are those who are not in such complicit or tethered positions or are not too far invested to see that a new perspective, a new approach toward happiness may be in order. I am talking to those who have not shut themselves off and who maintain misgivings about taking someone else’s word on how to live their life. I identify with all of them because I have been in a similar situation. After all, I spent many years trying in vain to prove the emperor wore a full attire of magnificent clothes and was parading as an admired, benevolent leader. At least I was hoping I could find or maybe piece together a philosophy of happiness that could be universally shared among humanity for a better world. Nobody could have been more astonished than I to see this possibility slip successively away with every try. Not finding any satisfying answers, I eventually gave up asking probing questions and decided to look for guidance at people around me and how they coped. I resigned that my happiness would have to thrive within the framework of a solid job and my income, marriage, friendships, hobbies and other diversions, and would otherwise expand by trial and error, some good advice, some foresight, and the determination of doing my best. I created a little world for myself in which I could live a sheltered, reasonably happy existence and not worry too much about what else was happening in the world outside. This did work out to a rather satisfying extent and to where it would have seemed ungrateful to be unhappy. But my mind, my conscience kept working on me, asking me unsettling questions such as: Did the reduction to this world built around me and the people I loved make me as happy as I should be? Looking forward, would other concerns eventually catch up? Looking back, was the time, effort, and faith of finding or creating a philosophy that would satisfy me wasted and better forgotten? Whenever one of these questions crept up, I regularly responded with a reminder of my blessings and increased resolve to appreciate them, even asking what more I could wish for? But that I was engaging in such a dialogue with myself showed that an increment of happiness was missing. I just did not see yet what was missing. And I was at a loss on how I or anybody could find their way to more happiness in such a nondescript situation.

It took writing down this question, as I have a habit of doing, for me to figure out the response. Looking at it, the answer stared right back at me in the very words “I or anybody could find their way to more happiness in such a nondescript situation.” Maybe I or anybody could indeed become empowered to find their own way to happiness. With other people’s recipes not being much help, it seemed clear we have to. But the question then was how to go about finding our way. Trying to figure this out gave me a new mission that put my studies and experiences to good use if only as examples of what to avoid. Looking back, starting this mission and pursuing it since was a big part of what had been missing in my happiness. I can also see now that the many years of frustrating research had a purpose. This was what it took to comprehend the low level at which human thought on happiness has been and what might be undertaken to raise it. They were necessary to scope out that we must take charge of our happiness because guidance by others falls woefully short. They showed me that nobody else does and can know as well as we in our own probing and insight what makes us happy. They were necessary for me to see that we must shake off what others try to make us believe, feel, think, or do, and that we must and can with confidence rely on our own capacities to figure out our happiness. They taught me that to succeed we need to grow up and learn to trust ourselves.

Simply put, my mission is to encourage the opposite of taking somebody else’s word for what makes us happy. It is to assist people explore, develop, and implement their own concepts of happiness. Its guiding principle is that to be sure that our objectives and pursuits are genuinely ours, we each must find, grow, and mature our own insights regarding them. We each have to find and identify our own truth, our own understanding of circumstances, and our own path of happiness. In encouraging this leap and path of freedom, I am counting on those with an open mind that are willing to face a mirror of their happiness and look themselves deep in the eyes. Maybe the courage for facing happiness has to develop over time. And it certainly is a good idea not to rely on my or anyone else’s accounts what any self-help, religious, philosophical, and scientific approaches toward happiness have to offer. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to review for yourself writings and presentations on happiness. You may want to read and read about philosophies founded or said to be founded by the personalities whose portraits are interspersed throughout the above-cited PDF version of this article. Only, you might not want to take quite as long as I to arrive at a conclusion. To assist you in finding your way to and through relevant literature, I am listing key reading resources below in Chapter 9.

Let us assume you come to the same conclusion as I that there is very little useful guidance on shaping one’s happiness. Once you decide to take charge of your happiness, how can I assist you? I can help you grasp the components and system of your happiness so that you can formulate strategies of pursuing it in an improved and optimized manner. You would begin this process by embarking on a mindful expedition through yourself and through your environment, visiting all parts to determine how they can contribute to or detract from your happiness. I can assist you in this by suggesting an itinerary through shared aspects of human existence in your inner and outer world. I can encourage you to take notice of these shared aspects and your personal, particular impressions and expressions of them. I can advise you to permit yourself to take in unforeseen sights you encounter on your journey and to possibly go on detours or excursions that reflect additional particularities. I can point to possible implements that might be of use in your travels and stopovers. You might think of me as a travel advisor for your mind who describes worthwhile regions for a visit and manners of getting around. But this is not a guided tour. I am not going with you on your trip. And my assistance is not geared to your particularities. I do not know you and even if I did, I could not become involved so that the experiences on your journey are truly yours. You must take this journey yourself because only you can find your understanding of your happiness in the personal sites you visit, and only you know what these are, how to find them, and what to do there. Exploring your happiness is your inherent right and also your responsibility.

Maybe this freedom paired with obligation is something to get used to. So many influences have been binding us to their tethers or we have tied ourselves to them without looking much elsewhere. But our happiness is an undertaking we cannot farm out to anybody else if we want to be happy. Nor can we agree to become livestock on somebody else’ farm. If we do not take our right and obligation to find and shape our happiness seriously, others will define our happiness for us. Or worse, they may deny it to us, push us aside, or use us in the pursuit of theirs. Even if that should not happen, insufficiently reflected pursuits and disorganized determinations are likely to damage our probabilities of success. Either way, we would likely find us at a disadvantage compared to those who have their objectives, and ways of working on them, figured out. We would be prone to not leading our life to its full potential. Or we would not even be leading our own life if we take somebody else’s word for what happiness is and how to pursue it. And we would run the risk that our lack of self-care could place us in circumstances that cause compounding unhappiness and further attenuate our hope.

When we imagine what might happen if we fail to take charge of our happiness, we realize that this is not just about whether we are feeling sad or glad. It greatly matters for our existence and ultimate satisfaction in reflecting on it. And when we understand our happiness and what it takes to be happy, we also realize that happiness matters beyond our immediate self because our existence is not isolated. In a connected existence, the unhappiness of others reflects on ours and vice versa in a circular motion. Similar statements can be made about our more extended environment. When we act in consideration of this interactivity and apply the resulting respect, unexpected degrees and ranges of harmonization in us, our surroundings, and between them set in. Mindful attention to our happiness affects us in ways that advance not only our own well-being but also the well-being of our human and nonhuman environment. Happiness turns out to be the most important guiding light for literally everything that matters to humans, or at least what should matter. Its all-encompassing quality gives us choices. If we make the wrong choices, we have the proven potential to mess things up. If we make the right choices, this world could be a paradise.

Maybe the lure of this attainable paradise is not yet within our imagination’s grasp because we never experienced anything close to it. And quite possibly, we will have to experience the intensified pressure of unhappiness before we step out of our closets and routines to make the effort of actively reviewing and improving our existence. At such a point in time, our options may be curtailed by an advanced state of our deteriorating situation or desperation. Still, we can take heart in the fact that our sensations of happiness and unhappiness steer us toward an appropriate determination whether we should take action. The only question we need to clarify for ourselves is what exactly we should do to improve our happiness. The crux regularly lies in this latter problem of what to do, not in motivation, which arrives by itself when we need it. Individuals and societies are from time to time motivated to step outside of themselves when they cannot bear their pain anymore or see their hope in betterment betrayed or slipping away. The problem and pervasive tragedy for humans and humanity so far has been that people fail to act because they do not know how, or that when they take action, they select erroneous and destructive paths because of their own confusion or deception by others and pent up anxiousness.

This is where the program of self-empowerment I describe comes in. Rather than taking a journey into the unknown that may lead them astray, my readers may decide to use the work I have invested over the years to accelerate and more clearly direct theirs. My role is not to tell people whether or when they should review their happiness to find means and strategies for its improvement, but to assist them if and whenever they decide the time is right for them. At such point, they can pick up my Philosophy of Happiness book to serve them as motivator, travel advisor, and itinerary on their self-directed journey of self-exploration. Because this is a trip to explore the entirety of our individual world, there are no easy and quick shortcuts. But we spend all our lives in the pursuit of happiness anyway. Even if we have scaled back objectives and pursuits from our dreams, we still labor trying to make the best of our situation. Why not avail ourselves of a considered, comprehensive approach that raises our chances of succeeding?

1. WORKS RELATED TO PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS BY THE AUTHOR.

a) Philosophy of Happiness Book. 1000 pages, Kindle, E-pub, and PDF e-book, hardcover, and paperback. Comprehensive coverage of common issues pertaining to a philosophy of happiness.

b) Knowing Book Series. Six-part series of philosophical quotes and poems. 226 pages each, Kindle and paperback. Companions to the Philosophy of Happiness book that avail readers of more apportioned and casual approaches toward an exploration of their happiness.

c) Philosophic Reflections. A collection of essays revealing Martin Janello’s motivations, illustrations, and resulting considerations of philosophical exploration. Examples of experiences and interests that can form one’s philosophy. Free of charge download of 43-page PDF e-book.

d) Philosophy of Happiness YouTube Channel. Contains a video from which this introduction was derived. Regular videos on issues of happiness and its philosophy.

e) Philosophy of Happiness Website. Additional opportunities to explore the philosophy of happiness with more information and excerpts of the Philosophy of Happiness book and other materials. Contains FAQ, Forum, Blog, and Contact sections.

2. ENCYCLOPEDIAS.

Some encyclopedias continue in traditional parts to perpetuate false myths of separation and superiority of Anglo-Saxon analytical philosophy vis-à-vis so-called Continental philosophy, let alone non-Western philosophy traditions, which were widely ignored until recently. Significant work is in process to fix this unprofessional, embarrassing parochial bias in English language resources, pushed along by the fact that English has become the lingua franca of philosophy. Inclusiveness is most effectively achieved by the worldwide inclusion of contributors and editors. I advise to look for this in your searches.

a) Wikipedia. Use of Wikipedia on subjects of this article is highly discouraged since its pseudo-democratic, anonymously autocratic and bureaucratic method inherently lacks quality and reliability. I found its entries to be uneven, ranging from the occasionally scholarly to mostly amateurish or agenda-driven treatments beset by incomprehension, shallowness, errors, omissions, and misrepresentations. The problem is that, apart from extremes of this range, the difference may not be apparent to unfamiliar readers. The indiscriminate listing of Wikipedia on top of search engine results despite its decline makes sampling what it says enticing. However, I believe anybody trying to get to the core of happiness and its philosophy - or just casually reviewing the subject to see what they can find - would do themselves a great disservice being misdirected or discouraged by its inept, incorrect, and incomplete information. Any of the alternatives cited below offer vastly superior reliability, orientation, organization, insight, and context.

b) Encyclopedia Britannica. Alright for general orientation, but varying quality level and at times odd or antiquated statements and choices of importance and language. Convoluted references. Free with ads. Subscription with 7-day free trial then, $74.95/year or $8.99 monthly. I suggest skipping it.

c) Encyclopedia.com. A better-written and better-organized up-to-date on-line encyclopedia with material from over 200 individual encyclopedias and reference books from reputable publishers, including Oxford University Press, Columbia, and Cengage. Free access with minimal ads. Recommended as a start.

d) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Established in 1995. Free of charge. An on-line academic research tool with about 1600 entries. Good effort to increase coverage of non-Western philosophies. Focus on continual updating by entry authors with editor oversight. Governed by a table of contents that is really an eclectic alphabetical index. Suffers from lack of organization among articles, holes in coverage, weak cross-referencing, and insufficient contextualizing of topics. Excellent if sometimes too short on the topics it covers. Comprehensive bibliographies. A bit unwieldy for beginners. Unless you are looking for something specific that this encyclopedia might cover, you might prefer one of the encyclopedias below.

e) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Established in 1995. Free of charge. Well-written online research tool for wide range of readers. Written and maintained by an impressive roster of professionals plus an editing board from around the world. Peer-reviewed academic level information on a growing, already rather comprehensive range of philosophers and topics. Good effort to increasingly take account of philosophy as a worldwide phenomenon and discipline. Searchable by alphabetical index or categories (“browse by topic”). Excellent in the content it covers. Comprehensive bibliographies. Recommended.

f) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Originally published in 1998 in hard-copy as 10-volume set and CD-ROM, 8680 pages. Expanded on-line version by subscription to libraries only. Free search of articles, article summaries, introductory articles, and earlier versions of revised or replaced articles. Over 2,800, regularly updated entries. Impressive navigation tools, context, and cross-referencing. Summaries and overviews give good expositions. Valiant effort to incorporate non-western philosophies. Print version is getting a little long in the tooth on developing subjects. The limitation of this encyclopedia to libraries is regrettable because this is otherwise an eminently accessible, precise, and comprehensive research tool that I think is unmatched in the English language. Check with your library how you can get access.

g) Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 10-volume set, 2nd edition, 2005, 6200 pages. Originally published by Macmillan Reference USA in 1967. Now only available as e-book with 7799 pages. 2,100+ entries of varied detail. Substantially updated and expanded since 1st edition, yet replacing worthwhile parts. Good non-Western philosophy content. Mostly comprehensible without any philosophical training. Includes a thematic outline of contents and solid bibliographies. Because it is much less expensive than Routledge Encyclopedia, chances are better that your local community library may have it. A good research tool. But if you have a choice, go with the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, particularly if your library makes its online version available. If you are not a library goer, you probably will be best served by the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, comparing notes maybe with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

h) Single-Volume Philosophy Encyclopedias or Dictionaries. This compressed format can convey very general ideas of the field and elicit interest to find out more. However, its alphabetical organization confuses and hides context and development. This, together with the abbreviations and generalizations this sort of summarization requires, can dead-end inquiries more than assisting them. Conversely, readers may get the impression they grasped philosophical phenomena when this is outright impossible based on these summaries. They can only give outlines whose meaning cannot be unlocked without further study. This may be fine for mechanical school learning and testing, but not for inquisitive study. Even as a starting point, compressed encyclopedias waste time and effort in skimming that can be better spent. With this warning, here are the better ones in declining sequence of recommendation:

i) The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 1st ed. 2000, 1030 pages, hardcopy, paperback. Summaries of all 2000 entries from the 10-volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Good.

ii) The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 1st ed. 2005, 1104 pages, hardcopy, e-book, and on-line. Abridged version of the 10-volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Selective.

iii) The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd ed. 2015, 1201 pages, hardcopy, paperback, e-book.

iv) The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. 2nd ed. 2005, 1076 pages, hardcopy and on-line.

v) Blackwell Companion to Philosophy. 2nd edition 2008, 976 pages. Introductory text book taking a run through traditional Western philosophy, highlighting key issues and arguments. Didactic style for school and test purposes. Limited glossary and reading references. Somewhat useful. Attempts to connect philosophy with current issues, but engages in questionable categorizations and judgments.

3. MONOGRAPHS, HANDBOOKS.

a) The Routledge Philosophers. A series of ca. 30 books introducing Western philosophers and discussing highlights and context of their work. Includes chronology, glossary, summaries, and suggestions for additional reading. Recommended.

b) Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. 130 volumes. Introductions through conglomerates of essays, each of which authored by different scholars. Interesting assortments of views, but rather topical and eclectic. Although the style is geared toward general comprehension, the disparate content of these companions may be too disorienting for a novice. I suggest first getting a solid basis in the covered topics.

c) Oxford Handbooks Online. Excellent collections of articles on themes and specialized areas of philosophy. Similar to Cambridge Companions, but aimed at more advanced readers and the propulsion of discussion. This suggests preparation at a higher level. Subscription only offered to institutions.

d) Wadsworth Philosophers Series. Out of print, but many titles still available new and used. Over 100 titles on philosophers in the Eastern and Western traditions. Concise, well-written introductions to philosophers and their work with adequate but sometimes incomplete coverage of major points.

e) Rowohlt Monographien. This fantastic German series is sadly out of print since 2017, but some titles still available new and many used. Online version pulled as well. Over 700 titles, hundreds of them on philosophers and their work. Excellent introductions with thorough enablement of further studies.

f) Les Collections Microcosme. This great French out-of-print series of publisher Editions du Seuil contained among other sections treatises about philosophers and their works, Écrivains de Toujours (1951-1981 and 1994-2000), and about religions and their promoters, Maîtres Spirituels (1955-1998).

4. SOURCE TEXTS AND READING INTRODUCTIONS.

a) Public Domain Sites. The age of many philosophical texts and secondary literature places most of them within the public domain. A great number of them are freely accessible through these sites:

Project Gutenberg  / Internet Archive  / Open Library  / Internet Classics Archive  / Open Culture

b) Dover Philosophical Classics, Western Philosophy and Religion, Eastern Philosophy and Religion. A good set of mainstream introductions and texts. Discounted selection in Thrift Editions.

c) Oxford World’s Classics Philosophy. About 75 reprints and translations of mainstream classic texts. Substantial introductions, notes, chronologies, and bibliographies in support of the texts.

d) Penguin Classics & Portable Series. Reprints and translations of traditional texts.

e) Routledge Philosophic Classics. Anthology series of traditional categories with introductions.

f) Blackwell Philosophy Anthology & Readings History of Philosophy. Key texts with comments.

5. COMPREHENSIVE PHILOSOPHY PUBLISHERS.

a) Routledge. 8000 titles. Clearly categorized. Gold standard in selection and quality.

b) Oxford. Over 8000 books and dozens of journals, well-organized, much on-line.

c) Springer. 6200+ books and 475+ series, 60+ journals. E-books and print. Some in German.

d) Brill. 4250+ books, 37 journals. Some in German. E-books and print.

e) De Gruyter. 7200+ books, 45 journals. Some in German. E-books and print.

f) Bloomsbury. Thousands of titles. Interesting world philosophy entries. E-books and print.

g) Rowman & Littlefield. Thousands of titles. Well-organized catalog. E-books and print.

h) Cambridge. 3300+ book titles. Well-organized. E-books and print.

i) MacMillan Palgrave. 3000+ books, 67 series, 7 journals. Basic to specialized. E-books and print.

j) Penguin Randomhouse. 1000+ books, well-organized print catalog.

k) Hackett. 450+ print titles. Introductions to philosophies and philosophers plus translations. Presence in classical philosophy and texts but also modern traditional philosophy.

l) Wiley. Includes Blackwell. 400 titles, mostly e-books and print. Well-organized.

m) Other Publishers. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, Chicago, Notre Dame, Edinburgh, McGill, Indiana, Princeton, MIT, Imprint Academic, Polity, Michigan, Open Court, Northwestern, UCal.

6. SEARCH TOOLS FOR PHILOSOPHY PUBLICATIONS.

a) Philpapers. A comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy. Comprehensively monitors all sources of research content in philosophy. Also hosts the largest open access archive in philosophy.

b) JSTOR. Digital library. Access to 12 million plus academic journal articles, books, and primary sources, including philosophy. Basic access free, increased access through participating libraries or paid.

7. POPULAR TITLES.

Philosophy isles of actual and virtual bookstores have become infested with series recognizable by hooks in their name or otherwise suggesting philosophical popularization. Titles I reviewed are, with very few exceptions, caricatures with romanced catchphrases, slogans, and dumbed-down descriptions. They might impress at cocktail parties unless someone asks questions. At best, they hold some entertainment value in their over-simplifications and desperate strain for popularity and sales.