I had a mini-epiphany the other day.  This happens to me recurrently, especially after eating my wife’s curry.   I take it as yet another proof of the mind-body linkage.  What happens is that there are two bits of information floating around in my brain that suddenly decide they are related.  As a consequence, I go Eureka!

This time it has to do with the thought of two seemingly different guys.  The first is Martin Seligman, about whom you’ve heard plenty from me before.  Seligman holds that there are three paths to happy lives, or three possible routes to happiness.   They also constitute three overlapping fields of research in the field of positive psychology.

Here is how he describes them:

“First the Pleasant Life, consisting in having as many pleasures as possible and having the skills to amplify the pleasures.  This is, of course, the only true kind of happiness on the Hollywood view.  Second, the Good Life, which consists in knowing what your signature strengths are, and then recrafting your work, love, friendship, leisure and parenting to use those strengths to have more flow in life.  Third, the Meaningful Life, which consists of using your signature strengths in the service of something that you believe is larger than you are.”

The second guy is called Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher in the 19th century.  As far as I can remember from my graduate days, he has many interesting things to say about the pleasures of anticipation, repetition and recollection.  Among other things, he believed that there are three ‘stages on life’s way’:

The aesthetic – The aesthetic is the realm of sensory experience and pleasures.   To live the aesthetic life to the fullest one must seek to maximize those pleasures.  This is an immature stage.

The ethical – The ethical life is based on a consistent, coherent set of rules established for the good of society.  The ethical person considers the effect his or her actions will have on others and gives more weight to promoting social welfare than to achieving personal gain.

The religious – The religious life focuses on self-exploration.   Kierkegaard considers the religious life to be the highest plane of existence.  He also believes that almost no one lives a truly religious life.  For Kierkegaard, this life is exclusively personal; large-scale religion distracts people from real relationships.

Do you see the similarities between their two visions?

Yes, there are interesting differences too.  For instance, Seiligman’s final stage widens out to embrace the larger view, whereas Kierkegaard’s collapses into the personal.  Also, I suspect that Seligman views his three stages as complementary, with each new stage enveloping the one below it.  Kierkegaard seems to paint a picture of conflict between them.

Anyway, if nothing else, this blog has given you an idea of what happens in my brain after I eat curry…

Image credit: blogger’s own.