ABSTRACT

The main differences between joy and happiness, both considered as emotional responses to processes of accomplishment, can be reassessed on the basis of the following two factors. First, joy accompanies the process through and through, whereas happiness seems to be more strictly tied to the moment of achievement of the process. Second, joy is not only a direct emotional response to an event that is embedded in our life-concerns but is also tightly bound to the present moment, whereas happiness presupposes an evaluative stance concerning one period of one’s life or one’s own life as a whole. Even a life that has been confronted with several sad episodes and obstacles, to which one has however responded in a way that corresponds to what one takes to be a valuable accomplishment or self-realization, could possibly be experienced as ‘happy’ in self-evaluation.