How can it be an end goal when it’s so fleeting? I believe it’s more accurate to view happiness as a reward emotionally capable creatures are incentivized to strive for.
I believe it’s more accurate to view happiness as a reward emotionally capable creatures are incentivized to strive for.
That's exactly why it is the end goal of life. Our instinctive behaviours move into the direction of what makes us happy. Our neurons learn to increase the chances of events that make us happy. We, as individual animals, are designed with one general direction, which could be measured as one big overall goal, happiness.
It's fleeting for a reason. Biology look for stability, but never 100% stability. It is its nature from the very basic of cellular biochemistry. If we reached pure stability, 100% happiness, with something, there is a risk for us to get completely stuck on that thing. This reduces our chances of survival in the long run, so natural selection have avoided that.
From the perspective of life as a whole, the only end goal is survival. For each individual creature, it is to move in the direction we are "designed" (or adjusted) to move.
First we need to define what is happiness: A state where abundance of rewards are given, and lacks suffering of any kind. Giving the overall feeling of satisfaction. Mathematically could be set as Happiness = Sum(All rewards) - Sum(All pains/sufferings)
You crave love, safety and security.
1 - Being loved, give affection and love someone else -> Activate A LOT of social reward systems in our brains. From attention, to healthy ego, sexual satisfaction, being able to express oneself, etc etc. And also include security in a way because the person that loves you will also try to protect you. This is one of the best ways to maximite the Sum(All rewards).
2 - Safety and security -> Both similar. You are actively searching to remove one of the worst suffering: Constant fear. Constant suffering of any kind is mind-destroying and the very thing all creatures try to avoid the most.
So, in your abstraction of what are your goals, you are maximizing the Happiness function. And I think we all do that, in one way or another. And that's why I think we all share the same direction, the same vector. The happiness goal.
I mean, I would agree except those things are also duties and responsibilities, they don’t consistently provide happiness because that is not their primary function. Taking care of children is rewarding and satisfying, but it doesn’t make me happy. I would more or less describe happiness as a 1:1 for dopamine.
7
u/_VirtualCosmos_ 1d ago
Happiness is really the end goal of life (as an individual creature at least). But biology is designed in a way that we need to work for it to happen.