HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, INTER-PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP AND CARE: A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The primary focus in the paper is on analysing the concept of happiness in having a significant connection with inter-personal relationships and with the virtues of care and compassion. In other words, according to the inference made in the paper, happiness co-exists in relating oneself with others by transcending narrow conception of self-centredness and in seeking pleasures/joys beyond parochial contexts. I have combined happiness as a concept that reflects on matters of lived experience, and as a content matter for Philosophy of a well-lived life. The critical argument, put forth in the paper, is that personal happiness gets affirmed and accentuated by living amicably with others. I have also reflected upon the notion of pleasure, as put forth in Philosophical approaches, to highlight on the significant space that amicable relationships, and compassionate conduct and empathy hold in the concept of happiness. It is duly noted that most Philosophies, explicated here, have not explicated pleasure being antithetical to happiness. However, these approaches have reflected on comparing and even contrasting it with the meaning of happiness in the context of leading a life of excellence, acting out of compassion and care, and in being self-aware and having a stable emotional and mental state. This paper concludes by contextualising the analysis of happiness and inter- personal relatedness in the current state of living with pandemic, issues of isolation and social-distancing alongside the twenty first century global and local world-view.