Mark Kingwell's Excerpt 'In Pursuit Of Happiness'

Unruly Happiness

In Mark Kingwell’s excerpt, “In Pursuit of Happiness,” he presents information illustrating the challenge of defining happiness. Kingwell utilizes evidence and support from philosophers, authors, and scientists to supply readers with various perspectives on the pursuit of happiness. By the end of the excerpt, Kingwell provides information about happiness, unhappiness, and concludes with his own thoughts about the failing hunt for the definition of happiness, but he never truly expresses his personal opinion about what he believes is the definition of happiness. Many strive to define happiness, but no one has described it sufficiently. Even credible sources such as the “New English Dictionary” present unclear definitions of happiness. Another major problem with this task is that happiness describes a range of concepts and as a result finding one precise way to describe contentment is challenging. Kingwell brings up the point that in order to competently define happiness multiple sentences are necessary as one sentence is simply too brief to thoroughly define the word.

In my opinion, happiness is such a natural feeling that it cannot be exactly defined, but only experienced, and therefore is different and personal for everyone. There are multiple definitions that vary from person to person. I disagreed with more than just the main points presented, but with the some of the evidence and how it was conveyed. The section about genetics while interesting, seemed too long and off topic from the main point of the excerpt which was to define happiness. Genetics do not define happiness, but explains the limits to a person’s happiness. The only reason for Kingwell to talk about genetics would be to bring up the definition geneticists have for happiness. Unfortunately, geneticists do not have a definition which satisfies my idea that this section should have been