I am curious: when someone says they are happy, how do you judge the credibility of the claim?
There are certainly a lot of reasons to trust Luke’s judgment. His other claims are verifiable, and given the nature of his message and the community he’s delivering it to, he probably feels a strong desire both to tell the truth and to understand the truth about himself.
Nonetheless, I suspect there are far more people who claim to be happy than who really are, essentially due to belief in belief. What are some tests? For example, are there people known to have high emotional intelligence who know Luke well and think he exhibits high happiness levels?
I hope this doesn’t come off as a personal questioning of Luke in particular. It seems like a difficult problem in general, but nonetheless an important one if I want to study what people have to say about happiness.
I am curious: when someone says they are happy, how do you judge the credibility of the claim?
There are certainly a lot of reasons to trust Luke’s judgment. His other claims are verifiable, and given the nature of his message and the community he’s delivering it to, he probably feels a strong desire both to tell the truth and to understand the truth about himself.
Nonetheless, I suspect there are far more people who claim to be happy than who really are, essentially due to belief in belief. What are some tests? For example, are there people known to have high emotional intelligence who know Luke well and think he exhibits high happiness levels?
I hope this doesn’t come off as a personal questioning of Luke in particular. It seems like a difficult problem in general, but nonetheless an important one if I want to study what people have to say about happiness.