Hume's Idea Of Happiness

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Self-Esteem and Happiness Happiness is a subject that arises in many philosophical writings and discussions. There are many theories regarding where happiness comes from, what happiness is, how happiness is achieved, and an infinitum of other related subjects. In his writings, Hume expresses several of his opinions regarding happiness and the requirements needed to achieve happiness. Hume suggests that there are a set of virtues that are crucial to the achievement of happiness, and one such quality is “self-esteem”. When understood properly, Hume’s idea that happiness is only achievable when one has self-esteem is a majorly true theory. This having been said, this theory is still one which requires further analysis. What is self-esteem? Is self-esteem something that one can develop, or is it something uncontrollable? Is self-esteem actually necessary to achieve happiness? Before any of these questions can come into play, however, one must first have a sufficient understanding of the concept of happiness as it is used in this work. A definition of “happiness” is something one could write an entire book about in and of itself. However a definition this thorough is not necessary for this theory. Basically, happiness in this sense can be defined as something along the lines of: A feeling of well-being that exceeds normality. Happiness for this instance can simply mean feeling more positively than one would normally feel, whether the change in mood be temporary or permanent. Some might argue that there are holes in this definition of happiness, or that it is an incorrect definition altogether, but it would seem logical that most people have a relatively similar sense of what it means to be “happy”. The next step in evaluation Hume’s theory is to define self-esteem. The term self-esteem means the way in which one evaluates him/her self. This definition
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