Review: The Conquest of Happiness

-Muhammad Abrar

Nov 10, 2021

(“The Conquest of Happiness” is a famous work of Bertrand Russell, a famous British philosopher, and mathematician. In this book, he has suggested a cure for unhappy people based upon his personal experience and observation. The conditions to be a “happy man” that Russell puts forth in this book are still valid. His use of simple language throughout the book along with coherent ideas is highly impressive. In this brief article, I would try to take into account some important causes which according to Russell can bring happiness in a man’s life.)

Modern life whereas it has brought so many luxuries is also equally responsible for making a man unhappy. It has broken family relations, divorced a man from nature, and divided the unity of human beings. Without a happy social life, none can achieve a happy personal life. 

Russell argues, to become happy, we must get rid of unhappiness. We must try to understand which things make us unhappy. That’s why he has divided the book into two parts. The first part deals with the causes of unhappiness, and the second part explores the causes of happiness. For Russell, the causes of various kinds of unhappiness lie partly in the social system, partly in individual psychology. However, here he deals with only the later cause. Moreover, he says, “I shall confine my attention to those who are not subject to any extreme cause of outward misery.” 

Human is such a being that seeks company in every stage of life. At the first stage, he yearns for the company of his parents. Talking about his personal experience and observations Russell says, “I have found the happiness of parenthood greater than any other that I have experienced. At the next stage, he seeks the company of his teachers. Then at a further professional stage of life, he comes into interaction with the state. Having done so, he is still not satisfied and goes on to find the company in the form of religion or his beliefs. Hence, any such action that takes a man away from the company will cause unhappiness.

Russell says human beings are part of the Earth: “Whatever we may wish to think, we are creatures of the earth, our life is a part of the life of the earth, and we draw our nourishment from it just as the plants and animals do.” Alienation from nature is a big, but neglected, cause of unhappiness. Nature has healing power. For Wordsworth, nature was a teacher whose absence makes life futile; for Keats, nature was the greatest source of inspiration. Hence the road to acquiring happiness goes through a man’s relation with nature. 

One of the gravest causes of unhappiness is fatigue. The dilemma of modern man lies in the grave reality that he is too much busy in his daily routine work. His mechanical life does not permit him to spare some time for pleasure. The excessive indulgence of a man in his professional life causes fatigue. He not only becomes physically unhealthy but his mental health is also affected. This nervous fatigue causes so many problems. “He derives no pleasure from his meals or the sunshine, but tends to become tensely concentrated upon a few objects and indifferent to all the rest.” 

Most people lose their faith in life. They don’t value life. They become pessimistic as is mentioned in Ecclesiastes: “The rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full/ there is no new thing under the sun.” The people who hold this view think that we have “seen through all the enthusiasms of earlier times and have become aware that there is nothing left to live for.” They are unhappy people because they have no purpose in life. Russell names it as “Byronic Unhappiness”. 

It is an effort for achieving a purpose in life that makes people happy. The people devoid of this spirit are unhappy. For example, if a mountain climber is, through some mysterious powers, thrown at the top of Mount Everest, will he be happy? Because he has not gone through the adventure and sufferings while attaining his purpose he will not be that excited. In the end, it is the journey that matters and not the destination. Dealing with this subject matter, Russell says, “That is why I have called this book The Conquest of Happiness. For in a world full of avoidable and unavoidable misfortunes, the man or woman who is to be happy must find ways of coping with the multitudinous causes of happiness by which each individual is assailed.” 

Purpose has much to do with acquiring happiness. A life without purpose is just like a race that has no endpoint. Therefore, they must try to seek answers to the questions: Why are we born? Which task do we have to fulfill? And what is the importance of our life on this earth? Only then will they find pleasure in this life. 

Sometimes in this “struggle for life,” people engage in a competition. But this competition is not for a better livelihood but “the fear that they will fail to outshine their neighbors.” This is so because people come to think that this competitive success is the main source of happiness. For them, life is a competition in which respect is to be accorded to the victor only. Russell condemns such a competition and maintains that success is not the only ingredient in happiness but one of those ingredients. He goes on to say that this competition does not confine to the professional status race, but it also rages personal life where a man abandons pleasures of life. He becomes a ‘modern dinosaur’ who prefers power to intelligence but sinks into nothingness by killing each other, just like ancient dinosaurs.

Russell, like the ancient Greeks, believes that only a balanced life is a key to happiness. Neither the extreme vanity, nor modesty in excess; neither excessive boredom nor limitless excitement; neither too much self-absorption nor undue fear of public opinion; neither continual work nor uncharted passive pleasure are the gateway to happiness. We have to find a path between two extremes. 

The book, as a literary work, has no doubt achieved a pinnacle of ideas and language. But there are some deficiences as well. The writer has not unveiled the dirty politics of the wealthy nations in tormenting the state of the poor. He doesn't talk about the Industrial Revolution which perished many innocent lives. He doesn't talk about the misery of the 20the century which was caused by the interests of the stronger. The root causes have not been touched upon. The book as an individual recipe for a happy life is a good one, but it has failed to take into account social injustice which is making an unhappy society