If we are to learn anything from Kant, it would seem that there is more to happiness than just having pleasurable experiences. Kant's statement here is a powerful one, simultaneously touching on human psychology, ethics, natural law, and what it really takes to be happy in life. I have lied, no man knows it.But when all is said and done reason commands us to believe in it." You may call it what you like, but it exists. "Give a man everything he wants and at that moment, everything will not be everything.When I contemplate the joys I have experienced in my life I find little pleasure but when I contemplate the instances where I have acted in accordance with the moral law engraved in my heart, I feel the purest joy. Karamzin took copious notes so that he would remember everything of their discussion, but what stood out most among Kant's remarks was about the nature of happiness: "Very few love the deep metaphysical speculation with which I have busied myself." The two men talked late into the night. ![]() "What I have written does not appeal to all," Kant said. The philosopher graciously invited Karamzin in, and told him to take a seat. ![]() "I am a Russian nobleman traveling to meet men of great learning that is why I have come to see Kant," Karamzin said. A small, slender old man presented himself. You May Call it What You Like, But It Exists But, "He who dares, wins," Karamzin wrote of the experience in his diary, "and so the door of the philosopher's house opened before me." He was deeply embarrassed at the notion of just showing up on Kant's doorstep without a letter of introduction - an important formality in those days among the nobility for people who did not know each other personally. Kant was an established scholar during the late 18th Century thanks to his formidable contributions to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology.Īfter dinner Karamzin went off in search of the street where Kant lived. Karamzin was enmeshed in a personal spiritual crisis he had profound religious and moral doubts that he hoped Kant might be able to help him work out. He had very little respect for the art of war and had come to Konigsburg for another purpose entirely - to seek out the advice of the philosopher Immauel Kant. Vulgar jokes flew about and there was uproarious laughter. The poet found the whole thing not at all to his liking. The conversation was about the parade which had just ended. He was forced to eat his dinner with a group of Prussian military officers. Karamzin arrived in the town of Konigsburg, Germany, on a busy market day. He kept a journal of his experiences and impressions. That spring, the aspiring Russian poet and author Nikolai Karamzin left on a tour of Europe. It also explains our unfortunate human habit of taking what we have for granted.Įven though the Hedonic Treadmill was scientifically observed in recent history, it turns out that Kant possessed a remarkably similar insight into human psychology, simultaneously defining hedonic adaptation and changing the course of one man's life in an impromptu late night meeting in 1789. Hedonic adaptation accounts for our tendency to overestimate how happy pleasurable experiences will make us, and the fact that we tend to maintain a relatively stable level of happiness regardless of our material circumstances. The psychologists Brickman and Campbell began studying this phenomenon scientifically in the 1970s, calling it the Hedonic Treadmill. Hedonic adaptation is the observed psychological tendency to revert back to prior levels of happiness soon after experiencing something pleasurable. ![]() Have you ever felt like you would be so much happier as soon as you fulfilled some desire, only to end up unsatisfied soon afterwards? Why is it that getting something we want doesn't always make us consistently happy over the long term? What are we meant for? Merely the experience of pleasure, or something more profound?
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