HUMANS have long wondered how to achieve happiness. We have come up with many answers to this question, but unfortunately they often conflict. One ancient dichotomy is particularly important to modern happiness research. Aristotle argued that happiness lay in maximising one’s personal excellence or “virtue”, and in using that virtue in the service of one’s community. In contrast, his predecessor Aristippus argued that happiness is all about maximising pleasure and minimising pain. To these basic traditions we can add a host of religious, philosophical and self-help suggestions that vary from secretly obsessing over one’s desires to acquiring a sexier body.…
