TOW #5: “There's More to Life Than Being Happy,” by Emily Esfahani Smith

In this text, Smith distinguishes the difference between being happy and having meaning in life. She expresses that while happiness does have its benefits in here and now, sacrificing it for finding meaning and purpose is much more beneficial in the long run. By doing this, people can be healthier in life and more resilient to the challenges that they might face. Smith is writing this now because she believes that the idea of sacrificing happiness for meaning “seems to be at odds with our culture, which is more interested in the pursuit of individual happiness than in the search for meaning.” While she is just a journalist and not a scientist, she uses statistics and anecdotes in order to achieve her purpose and establish credibility throughout the text.

Smith’s use of statistics and data gives this text a strong appeal to logos and helps to show that research supports her claim. She says, “Psychological scientists asked nearly 400 Americans aged 18 to 78 whether they thought their lives were meaningful and/or happy...Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a ‘taker’ while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a ‘giver.’” She then goes to on to explain that people who pursue happiness end up living a shallow, selfish life, while people who pursue meaning end up living deep, emotionally rewarding life. These statistics help to show that her claims have validity.

Smith also uses anecdotes of Viktor Frankl’s, a Jewish psychologist who lived through the Holocaust, life. She discusses how he had a chance to escape Hitler’s genocide, but he gave up his safety and personal opportunities in order to stay with his parents. By committing this selfless act, he was able to find meaning in his life and become more resilient throughout the Holocaust. Smith also tells the story of how Frankl helped two suicidal people find meaning in their life while they were in a concentration camp and helped them live through their self-destructive thoughts. By including anecdotes, Smith shows that there is support to her reasoning in the real world past just the numbers and data. Overall, I believe that Smith was semi-successful in advocating for the pursuit of meaning over that of happiness. She was a little heavy on the use of statistics, which made this article redundant. This text could be improved if she had focused more on the anecdotes of Viktor Frankl’s life, as it would give the text more depth.

Viktor Frankl, psychologist and survivor of the Holocaust
(http://www.charterforcompassion.org/images/menus/ReligionSpiritualityInterfaith/frankl3.jpg)