Can money buy happiness?

In recent decades consumerism has increased massively, but happiness has stayed at the same level. So what is going on? Well mass consumerism may be new, but working out what drives happiness isn’t. Going back to the Ancient Greeks, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers focused much of their work on happiness. For millennia since, philosophers have wrestled with what makes us happy. Is it money, power, friends, health, achievement, recognition, the economic or political structures, laughter, faith, routine, diet, attitude, environment, or all, or none of these things? And what is happiness anyway? Why is it that sometimes a good cry or moan is cathartic? What is the role of money in making us happy?

Welcome to Oxford Pips on happiness, and its cost.

First let's look at the different philosophical traditions and how they have defined happiness.

• Hedonic pleasure (hedoné): Immediate sensory pleasure and absence of pain.
• Joy: Intense, often temporary positive emotional states.
• Satisfaction: Contentment from fulfilled desires or achieved goals.
• Eudaimonia: Flourishing or living well through virtue, excellence, and purpose.
• Sublime: the quality of greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation.

To break this down a little more. Let's start with Epicurean Philosophy, the founders of Hedonism. Hedonists equate happiness with pleasure, but Epicurus (341–270 BCE) refined this by advocating for ataraxia (inner tranquility) and aponia (absence of pain). He actually emphasized moderation. wealth should secure basic needs and simple pleasures (e.g., friendship, philosophical discourse), not excess. He was also big on freedom from fear: Avoiding societal pressures to accumulate wealth unnecessarily. Interestingly, modern research supports this, showing that beyond meeting basic needs, wealth’s impact on happiness diminishes. Check out the "Hedonic Treadmill".
Stoics like Seneca and Marcus Aurelius argued happiness stems from virtue and rational self-control. Important to this was the idea of ‘Indifference to externals’. Wealth and status are "indifferent" to true happiness, which depends solely on one’s judgments. Resilience also mattered because happiness persists despite external circumstances, as it is rooted in mental discipline. Seneca's dialogue "On the Happy Life" (circa 58 AD) explores the nature of happiness from a Stoic perspective. He argues that happiness comes from pursuing reason and understanding nature's processes, connecting virtue with true happiness.
But can money buy happiness? Well modern research by Kahneman and Deaton found that emotional wellbeing rises logarithmically with income, but also increases in happiness slow as income grows. While earlier findings suggested wellbeing plateaus around $75,000 annually (an American study) newer research indicates the relationship may continue beyond this threshold. Now this is well beyond basic ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’, suggesting wealth fulfills physiological/safety needs, enabling focus on higher goals.
People have also looked at Positive psychology, genetics and hereditability. It's not just philosophers and sociologists, Psychologists and Economists have also developed measurements of happiness. Some argue that happiness is more important than GDP. Studies of the happiest societies indicate that the GDP link isn’t a given. And what of Social Capital?
All told, Happiness is going to be a joy to explore!
In this session we will work out what exactly we mean by happiness.
We will then go on to test that definition.

Read before (useful)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness

Interesting talks.

• What Makes People Happy | Ruut Veenhoven | Talks at Google
• Making social conditions for human happiness: Ruut Veenhoven at TEDxUtrecht
• The neurobiology of happiness: Pascal Wallisch at TEDxNYU

How to buy happiness | Michael Norton

Anyone can attend, from philosophy beginner to boffin. It is an engaging, inclusive, participatory event where we seek out new perspectives and learn from each other.