Happiness is not a fish that you can catch

There’s a great piece by David Sosa on happiness as something outside of us rather than something entirely internal to us over at The Stone.

Thinking about what makes us happy is always a fun exercise and Sosa’s piece leads us in that direction. Here’s a little preview:

Happiness is more like knowledge than like belief. There are lots of things we believe but don’t know. Knowledge is not just up to you, it requires the cooperation of the world beyond you — you might be mistaken. Still, even if you’re mistaken, you believe what you believe. Pleasure is like belief that way. But happiness isn’t just up to you. It also requires the cooperation of the world beyond you. Happiness, like knowledge, and unlike belief and pleasure, is not a state of mind.