In the previous two posts (one, two), we talked about Bertrand Russell and his theory of what makes us unhappy: competition, anxiety, envy and the fear of the opinion of others are just a few common factors that contribute to an unhappy life.

Today, we want to see what Russell thinks about how to become happy. Let’s dive in!

Zest and happiness

According to Russell, one of the main ingredients of a happy life is what he calls a “friendly interest in things”:

This way of approaching the world will lead to a life of “zest,” as he calls it: it will enable us to approach situations with genuine interest, and thus will make us able to derive pleasure from engaging with the world:

Children have this spontaneous interest in everything: “The world is full of surprises to them, and they are perpetually engaged with ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, not, of course, of scholastic knowledge, but of the sort that consists in acquiring familiarity with the objects that attract their attention.”

Grown-up humans, in contrast, often lose their interest in the world when they grow up. One reason is that one gets used to the world. The things that surround us lose their novelty and their ability to surprise us, like they did when we were children. But, as Russell emphasises, this is often an illusion. To the open, inquiring mind, the world is still full of mysteries and surprises. Those who think that they have already seen it all are probably wrong. Who of us can really explain why the sky is blue, for instance? Such a common thing – and we are likely unable to say how that works. And the same is true when someone would ask us about how plants function, what photosynthesis does, what the real causes of global warming are, or which country in Africa has the most …

Read the full article which is published on Daily Philosophy (external link)