Can happiness be purely a state of mind?

Question

Are there any mainstream philosophers (I assume it is meaningful to define such a subset of philosophers!) who argue that happiness can be a self-induced frame of mind? To put the question another way, can a state of happiness be attained by self-reflection alone, regardless of one's circumstances?

Answer 1

Well, I'd say that fits Buddhism, where not happiness in the sense of getting what you want, but Bliss rooted in understanding the true nature of things, is the fruit of meditation and cultivating the Eightfold Path as part of acknowledging the Four Noble Truths.

Awakening, or Unshakeable Liberation, is described as arriving suddenly, all at once, and irrevocably (with some disagreements by denomination). It's not strictly 'self induced', except for someone who is a Buddha with the power to do this without hearing the teaching. In a realm with the teaching, Boddhisattvas or Arahants are those who fully realise the teaching, and attain the state of ceasing to cause suffering, and able to access the state of Nirvana or Bliss.

Answer 2

It would depend on how you define "happiness". If "happiness" is "absence of suffering", then Buddhism (there are many, many forms!) would generally say that cultivating the right mind could lead to the cessation of suffering. The Dhammapada, which is a reference text in some forms of Buddhism, opens with these lines (re-reading this today, I'm realizing there are serious philosophical commitments here):

All experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind,
Speak or act with a corrupted mind,
And suffering follows
As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.

All experience is preceded by mind,
Led by mind,
Made by mind,
Speak or act with a peaceful mind,
And happiness follows
Like a never departing shadow.

(Translation by Gil Fronsdal)

Answer 3

Happiness as a self-induced state of mind regardless of circumstance is the end goal of the Buddhist path as stated repeatedly in the Pali Suttas of Buddhism. The simile of the saw states this in no uncertain terms:

Even if low-down bandits were to sever you limb from limb with a two-handled saw, anyone who had a malevolent thought on that account would not be following my instructions. (MN 21)

However, such happiness requires the conviction that better things are in reach regardless of the present circumstance. If pain and anguish is all you know, it's hard to accept that there might be a better world out there.

Answer 4

Both the Ancient Greek philosophers and modern positive psychologists believe so, the latter relying on the empirical evidence. If one broadens philosophy to philosophy of psychology, then Martin Seligman, who helped realign psychology with one of it's three original aims besides dealing with mental illness, that of bringing well-being to a person's life, has written at least two books on the matter, though there are entire textbooks written on the topic:

Positive psychology focuses on eudaimonia, an Ancient Greek term for "the good life" and the concept for reflection on the factors that contribute the most to a well-lived and fulfilling life. Positive psychologists often use the terms subjective well-being and happiness interchangeably.

There are a number of philosophical terms from Ancient Greek such as eudaimonia, ataraxia, and hedone are of interest to positive psychologists, who as a principle believe that human beings can choose to be happy. Among evidence-based traditional psychological thinking, such as CBT, there are ways to eliminate suffering from life, such exploring cognitive distortions and cognitive biases that lead to poor self-image and choices with undesirable consequences. Lastly, the humanist school as practiced by Frankl, May, Rodgers, Maslow and others believes that reflection and therapy can lead to happiness. Maslow is perhaps the most famous for his hierarchy of needs which examines how to reach self-actualization. You ask:

To put the question another way, can a state of happiness be attained by self-reflection alone, regardless of one's circumstances?

So, the case for it seems very cogent to claim that many contemporary philosophers of psychology, those of the last 80 years who have helped pioneer modern psychological practice believe that talk therapy, a form of reflection, absolutely can alter a state of the mind in the direction of happiness by reflection. This thinking isn't too distant from late Ludwig Wittgenstein (SEP) who believed that philosophy was a therapy devoted to curing one of one's misconceptions and getting closer to the truth:

In the Preface to PI, Wittgenstein states that his new thoughts would be better understood by contrast with and against the background of his old thoughts, those in the Tractatus; and indeed, most of Part I of PI is essentially questioning. Its new insights can be understood as primarily exposing fallacies in the traditional way of thinking about language, truth, thought, intentionality, and, perhaps mainly, philosophy. In this sense, it is conceived of as a therapeutic work, viewing philosophy itself as therapy.