Open AccessWhere is Tyche?
Author(s) -
Alfred Thomas Bordado Sköld
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international review of theoretical psychologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2597-3479
DOI - 10.7146/irtp.v1i2.128019
Subject(s) - happiness , openness to experience , existentialism , phenomenon , politics , social psychology , epistemology , affect (linguistics) , aesthetics , sociology , psychology , environmental ethics , political science , philosophy , law , communication
In this paper, I seek to revitalize the concept of happiness by conceptualizing it as a relational and instantaneous phenomenon with both existential, ethical and political dimensions. Happiness hap-ens – in and through encounters, and it does so when we least expect it. Drawing on Bachelard’s writings on ‘the instant’, as well as Gumbrecht’s and Rosa’s much related concepts of ‘presence’ and ‘resonance’, I attempt to formulate a more relational and nonvolitional counter-concept of happiness that blurs the border between eudemonic happiness and subjective well-being on the one hand and positive affect on the other. Safe-guarding opportunities for these moments to happen is to be seen as vital in a contemporary society governed by individualization, rationalization and hedonistic principles. Even though one cannot choose to be happy, one can indeed lead a good life; colored by an openness towards the other and what might come.