Clearly, it makes no sense to say that someone is mistaken about how happy they feel.
Presumably it does make sense to anyone who has ever said that someone is “out of touch with their feelings”. I can’t see myself ever using that expression, but it is a thing that people say. It is a claim that the person spoken of is mistaken about what they are feeling.
Because (it seems to me) “happiness” already refers to a subjective phenomenon. “How happy you are” just means “how happy you feel”. There is no underlying objective phenomenon—or, to be more precise, the subjective phenomenon is the objective phenomenon. How happy people feel, is actually what we are trying to measure.
I disagree with this. That the word “happy” refers only to a subjective phenomenon, and there does not seem to be a word ready to hand for an objective counterpart, are just accidents of English lexicalisation. But there is such a word, borrowed from the ancients: “eudaimonia”. Opinions differ on what constitutes the eudaimonic life, but given a view on that, one could measure it, and by means less superficial than asking “how happy do you feel?”
Indeed, other things that people measure go some way to doing this. Surveys of political freedom, oppression, prosperity, access to education, high culture, fulfilling work, poverty, etc. address various aspects of human flourishing.
In contrast, asking people “how happy do you feel?” seems frivolous. Why do we want to know this? Why do people want to measure it?
I have seen a good friend in tears one day and cheerful the next. How “happy” were they at either point? What could one do with the answer to such a question?
Presumably it does make sense to anyone who has ever said that someone is “out of touch with their feelings”. I can’t see myself ever using that expression, but it is a thing that people say. It is a claim that the person spoken of is mistaken about what they are feeling.
I disagree with this. That the word “happy” refers only to a subjective phenomenon, and there does not seem to be a word ready to hand for an objective counterpart, are just accidents of English lexicalisation. But there is such a word, borrowed from the ancients: “eudaimonia”. Opinions differ on what constitutes the eudaimonic life, but given a view on that, one could measure it, and by means less superficial than asking “how happy do you feel?”
Indeed, other things that people measure go some way to doing this. Surveys of political freedom, oppression, prosperity, access to education, high culture, fulfilling work, poverty, etc. address various aspects of human flourishing.
In contrast, asking people “how happy do you feel?” seems frivolous. Why do we want to know this? Why do people want to measure it?
I have seen a good friend in tears one day and cheerful the next. How “happy” were they at either point? What could one do with the answer to such a question?