Philosophical question

Are we happy because we are free or are we free because we are happy?
*supposing we are 'happy' or 'free'.

How do you define happiness? Freedom?

What a difficult question to answer satisfactorily. Happiness is easier to define than freedom because it's a feeling and when you have it - you KNOW you have it. Freedom is an ideal and mostly a symbol. In our human, faulted lives, it's subjective. It can be harmful. Lack of freedom is almost never good, but freedom has its own crooked dangers. I would argue that freedom and happiness are not causal... maybe overlapping at times.

Hmmmm...

Happiness is a state of mind we get when we are "free" from all things that bother and upset us. It is the bliss of thinking positively and seeing the good things in life, and usually it is a realization we come upon in life... when our lives seem to fit just right.

Freedom is being liberated from what holds us down. It could be physical freedom where nobody and nothing restrains our thoughts and actions or it can be freedom of our thoughts and actions where we live spontaneously.

They are both linked together of course, but if one of them is not there it doesn't mean the other isn't. Some people live in war zones and are happy to have a family and happy to be alive until this day. Others are free to do whatever they want, and they hurt themselves to express unhappiness...

If a person is happy because they are free, it means they are using their freedom in a positive way. And if a person is free because they are happy they are overlooking the negative restraints in their lives. So, it can happen both ways I guess.

Supposing that we are happy or free is an assumption that is inherently flawed.

free from what exactly? slavery of some type is the initial implication, but there are many, many things to be free from that no one is. free from psycho-sexual needs for instance, or free from biological needs, free for chemical imbalances that grant the urge to survive? govermentally you have to be joking. google 'japanese americans WW2' and youll see how far your rights and freedom will protect you. i would say that no one is free, not entirely.

happiness is a state of mind, in some senses like a state of 'slavery' or lack of freedom, however it could easily be argued that some are slave to their want of happiness.

but lets say that it is possible to be one or the other entirely, just for the sake of argument. the USA has patriotically fed us the impression that in order to be happy, we must have the 'freedom' capitalism grants us, to sell and buy things that we dont necessarily need. i can see why freedom might be linked to a feeling of immediate satisfaction, but happiness is a bit of a jump, maybe we've heard it so many times that its becoming true. i suppose its better then living in slavery though.

happiness is pretty much the driving force of modern culture at this point. life is no longer about surviving so much as thriving and evolving a social status. happiness at this point is a feeling of doing something to elevate your social status and condition as it is related to oneself. you might say, but im lower middle class, and i love my wife and am perfectly happy, but you misunderstand what i mean. the fact that you have a loving wife and youre both perfectly happy IS a social situation. its a very good social situation as it relates to you. remember that pretty much everything is pendant on the individual and his/her perception of the environment.

i guess define "free" and define "happy" and i can go somewhere with this question other than in refutable circles.

I agree

Agreed

I do my best

Thank you all for your insight!
I know there is no straight-forward answer; maybe there's no answer at all... but I just wanted to hear your opinions. Please don't stop sharing!!!

More food for thought:
Not coming from a governmental standpoint, can we be truly free? If so, when? If not, what holds us back both internally and externally? How can we find freedom? Are you free?

Lets do this.

We can never truly be free because there is no absolute truth, so we cannot be absolutely truly free. (truth is pendant from one individual to another, what i perceive as true, may not be true to you. therefore, freedom or lack there of is also subject to individual perspective, and what may seem free to me, is not to you.)

There are thousands of factors that prevent us from being free, but again i ask, free of WHAT? Gravity? sexual urges? the need to eat? mortality? ourselves?

i guess death, you can be free from any and all states of being if you die, you dont have to breath or eat or use the restroom, you dont have to pay taxes, or any of that jazz.

so... yeah, in death there is freedom from all things, the good and the bad.

no, im not free, and thats ok, who would want to be free from happiness?

I think freedom and happiness are momentary... They last for a while and then you're back to the opposite state of mind. But think of it this way; if sadness didn't exist then how would you know that you're happy. If oppression or being un-free didn't exist, how would you know you're free? So there is no absolute freedom or happiness. But I think it does truly exist... in our minds more than in our true lives. I believe that if your mind is free, than you feel free even if your life was the opposite.

"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough their yours"

Richard Bach.

Think about that for a while, then apply it to truth and freedom.

I think that there are things its good we arent free from, but, sure enough, we arent free from everything.

If happiness is a state of mind chemistry plays a role . If we are our mind we could chose to accept the things we can't control change what we can with the gift of courage, and accept the wisdom to know the difference

In the machanics of cognition does the neuron recieve electrical impulses or do they produce them?

Happiness is when the ratio of negative energy to positive energy remains sufficiently low (less than 0.75, more likely) for a constant enough period of time. I think.

No one is ever free.

Good point

"But think of it this way; if sadness didn't exist then how would you know that you're happy. If oppression or being un-free didn't exist, how would you know you're free? So there is no absolute freedom or happiness."

Dark Secrets, you summed it up beautifully and eloquently. :)

Freedom is related more to tyranny and oppression than it is to happiness. And happiness is related more to sorrow and suffering than it is to freedom.

Yin and yang are the two opposing forces that govern the whole universe. Each is reliant upon the other. They arise together and define each other. You can never get rid of one without destroying the other.

Who say's that they are inevitably connected?
Freedom=Happiness?
Happiness= Freedom
It makes no sense. I am happily free. But the two go together in a descriptive way as in I am happy to be free. Or I am free to be happy. Not I am only happy if I am free. And I am only free if I am otherwise happy.
A state of mind of happiness is determined by one's self aspirations and wants. possibly freedom may not be this. I personally consider myself free although I am connectedto those around me. Free in one's mind? Or in one's spirit? A totally different matter.