Meaning and happiness

Meaningfulness and happiness are the same thing, aren’t they? At least that’s what many people think. However, the closer you get to an understanding of both concepts, the clearer it becomes that neither are they synonyms nor does one inevitably emerge from the other. Happiness is a positive emotional state that can be more or less intense; it is a feeling. Meaningfulness is not a feeling. It is a cognition, resulting from implicit or explicit evaluation processes. But the differences go far beyond the conceptual level. Depending on whether we strive for happiness or meaning, quite different ways of life ensue. This chapter introduces the concepts of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being with specific reference to meaning in life. Moreover, situations of meaning without happiness are presented and discussed.