Today's guest post is contributed by my friend Winton Bates. Winton has a background in economics. He writes about the good society, psychology, philosophy, and other topics at his website Freedom and Flourishing:
John Stuart Mill is often quoted as an authority on the question of whether happiness can be obtained by seeking it. In Autobiography he wrote:
“Those only are happy ... who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way”.
How can that view be reconciled with Mill’s conviction “that happiness is the test of all rules of conduct, and the end of life”?
John Stuart Mill is often quoted as an authority on the question of whether happiness can be obtained by seeking it. In Autobiography he wrote:
“Those only are happy ... who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way”.
How can that view be reconciled with Mill’s conviction “that happiness is the test of all rules of conduct, and the end of life”?
