I’ve spent the last few weeks delving into history. Some of the ideas about happiness from the past, it turns out, were very demanding – and went far beyond the world of ordinary experience. I’ve added two new pages recently, both of which deal with issues that transcend life as we usually know it.
To the Reviews page I’ve added an article about Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Although the Romantic movement never really caught on in the US, his work as a Transcendentalist (an American spin-off of that school of thought) has helped shape contemporary ideas about happiness, especially the ones relating to the idea of authenticity. Have you become the sort of person who can perceive God? Emerson tries to describe the state of mind you’d need to do this – and the sort of person you’d have to be.
I’ve also added an essay about Nietzsche’s conception of the Eternal Return of the Same. (That’s the latest entry in Happiness HQ, my little encyclopedia of happiness.) Would you be willing to live your life over and over again, exactly as it was, is, and will be? Because, Nietzsche suggests, you might have to. If not, what would get you to that point of self-acceptance? This is at the heart of Nietzsche’s thinking about the Eternal Return.
I’m still working through the Transcendentalist period. I’m not really looking forward to Walden; it looks like it’s about 15 hours on LibriVox, but that’s next on my list.
Anything you think I should read? Let me know.
-Steve