[One Thousand Characters a Day] Professor Seo Eun-guk's 'Where Does Happiness Come From?' <1>

Editor's NoteAsia Economy presents this week's transcription content to the 'One Day Ten Thousand Characters a Day' newsletter readers, taken from Professor Eun-guk Seo of Yonsei University's ＜The Origin of Happiness＞. Professor Seo, a happiness psychologist, asserts that human happiness is a 'means, not an end.' Simply put, humans are designed to feel happiness in order to live, not to live in order to be happy. This challenges the conventional belief that humans live to be happy. The basis is Darwin's 'theory of evolution.' As part of nature, humans also strive to become happy for survival, the sole subject of natural laws. The text contains 922 characters.

Why do all animals divide experiences into pleasure and displeasure? It is to efficiently handle decisions closely related to survival. Signals of pleasure and displeasure protect us from danger and encourage us to seize opportunities. Snakes, cliffs, fraudsters, rotten food?these are lethal threats. At such times, our brain triggers unpleasant emotions like fear or disgust to send the message 'danger, avoid it.' Emotions are more immediate, powerful, and efficient than any other medium. However, merely avoiding danger is not enough for long-term survival.

Fertile but unexplored unfamiliar land, an attractive potential mate, a honey-filled beehive clinging to a cliff. We do not faint just because we cannot grasp them immediately. Yet, for long-term survival, these resources must be secured. Holding a number ticket and waiting does not guarantee acquisition. Despite fear, one must set out; despite exhaustion, one must try repeatedly.

This demands tremendous motivation and energy. Therefore, strong rewards commensurate with the effort are necessary. Emotions that induce pleasure serve exactly this role. Euphoria, a sense of achievement, pride, confidence. Once experiencing such irresistibly attractive feelings, one desires to experience them again. One seeks out all events, objects, places, and people that triggered them. Like the rats in Olds and Milner’s experiment. Whether consciously recognized or not, this process increases one’s long-term survival probability.

In summary, emotions of pleasure and displeasure are 'survival traffic lights' signaling when to advance and when to retreat. Displeasure is the 'red light' protecting us from harm. Ignoring this signal may allow survival a few times by luck, but ultimately leads to a tragic end. Pleasure emotions are the 'blue light,' and happiness is based on such experiences. When engaging in activities or thoughts beneficial to survival, the essential function of pleasure is to signal to continue that endeavor.

- Eun-guk Seo, ＜The Origin of Happiness＞, 21st Century Books, 18,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.