CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW As mentioned earlier, research and debates on happiness have been going on for over two millennia, so there is a vast body of literature on happiness In this chapter, I discuss what the existing literature says about happiness What is Happiness? What exactly is happiness? How people define it, and what makes people happy? How can one be lastingly happy? These are the questions that the ancient philosophers, medieval and modern thinkers, and the major world religions have tried to answer for over 2,500 years In the Western world, the discussions on human happiness date to the era of Socrates (469–399 BCE), and in the Eastern world, people discussed happiness even during the time of Buddha (563–483 BCE) Most people understand what happiness is, but defining happiness becomes a complicated concept Haybron (2011) says that there are two philosophical literatures on ‘happiness,’ each corresponding to a different sense of the term One uses happiness as a value term—a life that goes well for the person leading it—like well-being or flourishing The other body of literature uses happiness as a purely psychological term—a state of mind—like depression or tranquility For example, when it is said a person “is happy,” it refers to happiness as a psychological term In contrast, a statement like, “he is leading a happy life,” points to happiness as a value term The following section discusses ancient and contemporary philosophical theories and conceptions of happiness and draws heavily from the writings of Vitrano (2014) and Cahn and Vitrano (2008) 10