On learning what happiness is
Abstract
I explore conceptions of happiness in classical Chinese philosophers Mengzi and Zhuangzi.
In choosing to frame my question with the word 'happiness', I am guided by the desire
to draw some comparative lessons for Western philosophy. 'Happiness' has been a central
concept in Western ethics, and especially in Aristotelian and utilitarian ethics.
The early Chinese concept most relevant to discussion of Mengzi and Zhuangzi concerns
a specific form of happiness designated by the word le, which is best rendered as
'contentment'. For both Mengzi and Zhuangzi, there is a reflective dimension of happiness
that consists in acceptance of the inevitable transformations of life and death, though
these two thinkers chart very different paths to such acceptance. Mengzi holds that
it lies in identification with a moral cause much larger than the self. Zhuangzi is
profoundly skeptical about the viability of such a path to contentment. He instead
offers identification with a world that transcends human good and evil, and a way
to live in the present that can be deeply satisfying. One interesting outcome of both
their discussions of achieving happiness is that both come to question the importance
of happiness as a personal goal.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20418Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.5840/philtopics20134114Publication Info
Wong, DB (2013). On learning what happiness is. Philosophical Topics, 41(1). pp. 81-101. 10.5840/philtopics20134114. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20418.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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David B. Wong
Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Trinity College Arts and Sciences Distinguished
Professor of Philosophy
David Wong is the Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Professor of Philosophy.
Before he came to Duke, he was the Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Philosophy at
Brandeis University and the John M. Findlay Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Boston
University. The main subjects of his research include 1) the nature and extent of
moral differences and similarities across and within societies and how these differences
and similarities bear on questions about the objectivity and

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