His considered view on this question seems to be that the passions (particularly those of love and joy) form a valuable part of a human life, that the enjoyment of them is consistent with the happiness that is the natural product of virtue, but that happiness of the latter sort can be had even in the presence of harmful passions such as sadness or grief.
As John Hare affirms, "If we are to endorse wholeheartedly the long-term shape of our lives, we have to see this shape as consistent with our happiness" (1996, 88).
Sure: she's plastic, but given her consistent level of happiness and her relevance for 50 years, I figured it was a good starting point as any.
As perceived health is a consistent proxy of happiness and well-being [ 48, 49], participants were asked to rate their health (i.e., "How, in general, would you rate your health at this moment?") on a Likert scale from 0 (very poor health) to 10 (very good health).
And this is the only mode of keeping population on a level with the means of subsistence, which is perfectly consistent with virtue and happiness.
Their situation makes it entirely clear that a very high level of happiness is consistent with receiving considerable benefits for which the individual is not responsible.
But it is consistent with patterns that other happiness researchers have noticed, and there are some plausible explanations.
But it's difficult to know if these self-reports are authoritative since many may not have coherent, consistent or accurate conceptions of happiness to begin with.
Taking this estimation net of the usual gravity controls we propose an alternative happiness index that is consistent with the revealed preferences about happiness determinants in countries with different development levels and institutions.
And simply reminding myself that everything is temporary, my sadness and others' happiness included, is a consistent comfort.
