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I have heard a popular notion of happiness that — when you're happy you're satisfied/fulfilled with what you have.

Are 'happiness' and 'desire for more' mutually exclusive?

ShivCK
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    The questions seems very broad without definitions. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-being_contributing_factors, https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/52971, https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/14597, And then maybe ask your question again with some reference. – tkruse Apr 22 '22 at 08:07
  • One can be happy about being paid, yet simultaneously desire to go spend some of that money. Simply, emotions like happiness and desire often, if not usually, have an object. No doubt, one can experience at once different emotions about different things. Is this question asking specifically about both feelings about the same object simultaneously? If so, what about *some* versus *more* of a *substance*, like food? Is it truly the same object? – Michael Apr 22 '22 at 09:42
  • @Michael You can elaborate with any _object_ (say money). Can someone say "I'm happy with what I earn." with having the urge to "earn more". I think yes! – ShivCK Apr 22 '22 at 14:59

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Just to sharpen the terminology — I would differentiate happiness (as a settled intention to not be convinced by circumstances that ‘life is a burden’ or ‘there is nothing new under the sun’…) from contentment (as complete fulfillment of desire, satisfaction with current conditions and lack of ambition/drive.)

So you could be very happy but not content; or you could be superficially content with your circumstance, but convinced of unhappy interpretations of life.

You may be content in the sense of resigned to a fate, perhaps having succumbed to that ancient and lethal boredom epitomized by the ecclesiastical adage ‘nothing new under the sun’. If you’re not seeking to extinguish your desires in the world through activity — but rather to intensify the feeling of life — perhaps this is closer to happiness than contentment. If you are not sometimes taking risks that make you uncomfortable, ‘momentarily dissatisfied’, how could you ever hope to achieve true happiness?

Joseph Weissman
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  • So what I'm getting suggests happiness and contentment are two separate things. It's confusing how many people propagate their own versions of happiness. – ShivCK Apr 22 '22 at 14:57
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    @ShivCK You might want to think about the difference between [emotion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion) and [mood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_(psychology)). From the latter: "In contrast to emotions or feelings, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event." One might be tempted to see pleasure-happiness- contentment-eudaimonia as a paired, continuum where the pleasure end is a very perceptual experience, and eudaimonia is a very conceptual one. – J D Apr 22 '22 at 15:20
  • Reflect on heroin abuse to see how occurrences betray disposition. Short-term positive emotions can cause long-term miserable moods. – J D Apr 22 '22 at 15:21
  • @ShivCK And welcome! – J D Apr 22 '22 at 15:21
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Several things: 1. Being happy, and wanting things, are not just black and white states, they come in graduations. If desiring things you don’t have made you unhappy, you could desire some things and still be quite happy. 2. Who says desiring things makes you unhappy? You can desire things, put in effort to get what you desire, and the process of trying to get what you desire makes you happy. If you stop desiring things, life becomes boring and you become less happy.

gnasher729
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