DIFFRENT APPROCHES TO HAPPINESS

Biological approach

The evolutionary perspective offers an alternative approach to understand what happiness or quality of life is about. Briefly, it focuses on the questions: What features are included in the brain that allow humans to distinguish between positive and negative states of mind, and how do these features improve humans' ability to survive and reproduce? It claims that answering these questions points towards an understanding of what happiness is about and how to best exploit the capacities of the brain with which humans are endowed. This perspective is presented formally and in detail by the evolutionary biologist Bjørn Grinde in his book Darwinian Happiness.^[3]