Outline of The Conquest of Happiness
The book falls neatly into two halves: the causes of unhappiness and the
causes of happiness. The first chapter What Makes People Unhappy?
can be viewed as an introduction to the book, and the final chapter The
Happy Man as a conclusion.
Preface
"No profound philosophy or deep erudition will be found in the following
pages. I have aimed at putting together some remarks which are inspired
by what I hope is common sense. ... It is in the belief that many people
who are unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort that I have
written this book." [page 11] What do you think of this belief? Could
many unhappy people become happy by well-directed effort?
The Causes of Unhappiness
"My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day unhappiness
from which most people in civilized countries suffer, and which is all
the more unbearable because, having no obvious external cause, it appears
inescapable. I believe this unhappiness to be largely due to mistaken views
of the world, mistaken ethics, mistaken habits of life, leading to the
destruction of that natural zest and appetite for possible things upon
which all happiness, whether of men or of animals, ultimately depends."
[page 17]
"It is common in our day, as it has been in so many other periods of the
world's history, to suppose that those among us who are wise enough have
seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and have become aware
that there is nothing left to live for. ... I do not myself believe that
there is any superior rationality in being unhappy. The wise man will be
as happy as circumstances permit, and if he finds the contemplation of
the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else
instead. ... I wish to persuade the reader that, whatever the arguments
may be, reason lays no embargo upon happiness." [page 24]
Russell paints a bleak picture of the businessman so obsessed by competing
with other businessmen for success that the rest of life passes him by.
"Success can only be one ingredient in happiness, and is too dearly purchased
if all other ingredients have been sacrificed to obtain it." [page 43]
We have come to associate boredom with unhappiness and excitement with
happiness, but Russell argues that boredom and excitement form a separate
axis entirely, having little relationship with happiness. "Running away
from enemies who are trying to take one's life is, I imagine, unpleasant,
but certainly not boring. ... The opposite of boredom, in a word, is not
pleasure, but excitement." [pages 48-49] The confusion of excitement and
happiness, and the flight from boredom that it entails, is a chief cause
of unhappiness. The cure is to teach oneself to endure boredom without
running from it.
This chapter is actually about worry. Russell believes that such physical
fatigue as people feel in the industrialized world is mostly healthy, and
that only "nervous fatigue", caused largely by worry, is really destructive
to happiness. Russell believes most worry could be avoided by learning
good thinking habits, by refusing to over-estimate the significance of
possible failures, by taking a larger perspective, and by facing fears
squarely.
"If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon. But Napoleon envied Caesar,
Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I dare say, envied Hercules, who
never existed. You cannot therefore get away from envy by means of success
alone. ... You can get away from envy by enjoying the pleasures that come
your way, by doing the work that you have to do, and by avoiding comparisons
with those whom you imagine, perhaps quite falsely, to be more fortunate
than yourself." [pages 71-72]
Traditional religion, in Russell's view, has saddled us with an ascetic
moral code that will make us unhappy if we keep it (by denying us joy in
life) and also if we break it (by causing us guilt). The only solution
is to root this moral code out of our unconscious, and replace it with
a code less inimical to human happiness.
This is probably the most amusing chapter of the book, as Russell uses
his droll wit to puncture human self-importance. "My purpose in this chapter
is to suggest some general reflections by means of which each individual
can detect in himself the elements of persecution mania (from which almost
everybody suffers in a greater or less degree), and having detected them,
can eliminate them. This is an important part of the conquest of happiness,
since it is quite impossible to be happy if we feel that everybody ill-treats
us." [page 90]
"Very few people can be happy unless on the whole their way of life and
their outlook on the world is approved by those with whom they have social
relations, and more especially by those with whom they live." [page 100]
Fortunately the modern world gives us some choice about where we live and
who our friends will be.
The Causes of Happiness
In general, the second half of Conquest is not as impressive
as the first. Not only is this section shorter than the first, but Russell
has more of a tendency to ramble. These rambles can be entertaining, but
they are usually not very informative. I am left with the impression that
the causes of happiness remain mysterious to Russell. Once the obstacles
to happiness are removed, happiness just happens -- somehow.
"Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be
called a friendly interest in persons and things. ... The kind [of interest
in persons] that makes for happiness is the kind that likes to observe
people and finds pleasure in their individual traits, that wishes to afford
scope for the interests and pleasures of those with whom it is brought
into contact without desiring to acquire power over them or to secure their
enthusiastic admiration. The person whose attitude towards others is genuinely
of this kind will be a source of happiness and a recipient of reciprocal
kindness. ... To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps
the greatest of all sources of personal happiness." [pages 121-122]
11. Zest
Zest is the x-factor that causes us to be interested in life. Russell has
little to say about what zest is or how to obtain it. He does argue against
those who would devalue zest by claiming that it is a mark of superior
taste not to be interested in vulgar or lowbrow subjects. "All disenchantment
is to me a malady which ... is to be cured as soon as possible, not to
be regarded as a higher form of wisdom. Suppose one man likes strawberries
and another does not; in what respect is the latter superior? There is
no abstract and impersonal proof that strawberries are good or that they
are not good. To the man who likes them they are good, to the man who dislikes
them they are not. But the man who likes them has a pleasure which the
other does not have; to that extent his life is more enjoyable and he is
better adapted to the world in which both must live." [page 125]
"One of the chief causes of lack of zest is the feeling that one is unloved,
whereas conversely the feeling of being loved promotes zest more than anything
else does." [page 137] Unfortunately, considering the importance of affection
to happiness, this chapter is almost completely descriptive rather than
prescriptive. Russell describes the types of affection and evaluates their
effects, but gives little advice about how to either give or get higher
quality affection.
"Of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past none is
in the present day so disorganized and derailed as the family. Affection
of parents for children and of children for parents is capable of being
one of the greatest sources of happiness, but in fact at the present day
the relations of parents and children are, in nine cases out of ten, a
source of unhappiness to both parties, and in ninety-nine cases out of
a hundred a source of unhappiness to at least one of the two parties. This
failure of the family to provide the fundamental satisfactions which in
principle it is capable of yielding is one of the most deep-seated causes
of the discontent which is prevalent in our age." [page 145]
"Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or the causes
of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question." [page 162]
Russell places it among the causes of happiness for a number of reasons:
1. It passes time.
2. It provides an opportunity for success.
3. The work itself may be interesting.
15. Impersonal Interests
Certain interests are central to a person's conception of his/her life:
career, family, and so forth. In this chapter Russell asserts the value
of having interests that are not central, that have no effect on the major
issues of life. Such hobbies and pastimes serve two purposes: (1) They
provide an escape from larger worries, and distract the conscious mind
so that the unconscious can work productively toward a solution. (2) They
provide a reserve pool of interest in life, so that if disaster or a series
of disasters destroy the pillars that support our central interests, we
will have the possibility of growing new central interests.
This chapter contains an important tangential discussion of "greatness
of soul" which I discuss under the Transcending
Personal Hopes and Interests theme.
What Russell calls resignation is more popularly referred to these
days as acceptance. The question discussed in this chapter is basically:
Should we try to change the world or accept it the way it is? Russell takes
a middle position, roughly equivalent to the Serenity Prayer.
In the final chapter Russell comes back to his main point: attention should
be focused outward, not inward. "It is not the nature of most men to be
happy in a prison, and the passions which shut us up in ourselves constitute
one of the worst kinds of prisons. Among such passions some of the commonest
are fear, envy, the sense of sin, self-pity and self-admiration. In all
these our desires are centered upon ourselves: there is no genuine interest
in the outer world, but only a concern lest it should in some way injure
us or fail to feed our ego." [page 187]