Research On Russell’s View Of Happiness

Bertrand Russell, who is a very famous and influential philosopher, thinker,mathematician, litterateur and logician, is also an active political activist in the20th century.As a strong social-caring humanist and pacifist, Russell created a large number of worksduring his lifetime,covering almost all ranges. His works not only contain many classicacademic works, but include the investigations on social, educational, cultural, ethical,moraland other issues. This paper is mainly about the discussion on his concept of happiness, andit is divided into three parts:The first part introduces the background and theoretical origins of the concept ofhappiness by Russell. The generated background will mainly be introduced from itsupbringing experience and social background.While the theoretical origin introduces theinfluence from a lot of Epicurean hedonism ethics, Hume’s Emotivism ethical thinking andMill’s individualism.The second part introduces the specific content of the concept of happiness and theethical nature of Russell’s concept of happiness. It is the main part of this paper, focusing onthe characteristics and the ethical nature of Russell’s concept of happiness. which will bedemonstrated respectively from the two dimensions of the source of the unfortunate and theconstruction of happiness.Finally it is summarized that the sources of the unfortunateare"excessive self-concern",“Byronic unhappiness"and"excessive competition of success",while the construction of happiness are mainly about the two dimensions:" love "and"knowledge ". The author is trying to dig out the critique of ethical guidelines and the elationof the ethical concept of “good” in Russell’s concept of happiness. It aims at an extensionof the depth and width of the concept of happiness and even of ethics thinking from theperspective of a major student.The third part covers the theoretical and practical meaning in terms of the contemporaryvalue and limitation of Russell’s concept of happiness, so as to offer a bit academicguidance and revelation on the pursuit of happiness by modern people.