What is the
evolutionary and biological basis for happiness? It's easy to see the usefulness of being
unhappy -- if you are unhappy, you seek
to change your situation (if possible, and cases of clinical depression
aside). The new situation could confer
survival benefits.
Unhappiness in a
primal world might mean an environment with too many predators, an environment without good odds
for mating or social connections, or an environment without enough food. Beings which were motivated to leave such
environments would be more likely to survive and procreate.
So unhappiness
guides us to change our situation if we don't like it. But how do you explain people who stay in unhappy situations
(jobs, marriages) for years despite their unhappiness?
On another track, is
happiness simply the lack of unhappiness?
Should happiness be
the driving force, and if so, whose happiness?
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