Piotr Bartnicki
Aug 22, 2017 · 1 min read

I liked your article, I think many points are true.

But I think that technically you could still argue that you are seeking happiness. Struggle may be required sometimes in order to reach that happiness, but no one would doubt that that is the end goal — i.e. the painter who wants to create his masterpiece surely goes through a time of not having enough money and many failures, but the reason he goes through that is because he feels it will be better, or that he will be happier, when he has produced something that he feels makes his life meaningful.

Likewise, when you have decided to yourself that not all hedonistic pleasures are important, or that you don’t want to compare yourself to others, I think you are rather discovering things that don’t make you happy (in fact, if you did those things you would be quite stressed or unfulfilled). Thus its not that the goal of happiness has changed, its simply that you have targeted exactly what it is that makes you happy.

At the end of the day, it is true to say that happiness on its own, as a state of bliss where everything always works out well is unrealistic. But you can say that the purpose of life, is still happiness as the end goal. Why else would you do anything if not for the feeling of being fulfilled in doing it? That is the fundamental disconnect in your article.

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    Piotr Bartnicki

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