Happiness and Its Ethics

At our meeting, we'll have both small group and full group discussions about happiness and some questions associated with it. We offer a few possible questions below. Following the questions are links to a short video, some brief articles, and some other things on the topic that you might find to be of interest.

1. What does happiness mean to you and what makes you happy?

2. How do your thoughts about happiness fit with what the science says? (See the links below.)

3. Does the pursuit of happiness sometimes conflict with your sense of ethical responsibilities to others? If so, how do you manage such conflicts?

4. Given that contact with nature is widely thought to be a key contributor to happiness, should those who are comparatively affluent be required to contribute, through taxes, to the greening of less affluent urban neighborhoods.

Links to Readings and Videos

(Read or watch as much or as little of this as you wish. You are welcome to participate in the discussion no matter what.)

• Ted Talk on the Harvard Happiness Study (12 minutes)

• NY Times article on wealth and happiness

• "9 Things That Make You Happy"

• Arthur C. Brooks Columns on Happiness in The Atlantic

• Brief Summary of a Yale Course on Happiness (It's an enormously popular course. The article includes a link to the full course lectures.)

To make the small group meetings work, it will be best if all participants are on separate devices. Please RSVP using this link.