On February 4, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Anthropology Mikhail Lurie was featured as a guest of the program "Agora" on the TV channel "Culture". This time the topic of the conversation was one of the most mysterious neurobiological, philosophical and subject — "Happiness".
Is a person really born to be happy? How is happiness measured in sociological surveys, and which area of the brain is responsible for the emotion of happiness? All these questions were addressed by the program guests.
As an anthropologist Michael Lurie focused on the cultural aspect of happiness, noting that such a category does not exist in all modern cultures. But even if it does exist in a culture, what kind of culture it is contributes to people's perception of how happy they are; in addition, the "set" of what makes a person happy can vary from generation to generation, even among representatives of the same culture.
Among other guests of the program:
Vyacheslav Dubynin, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Alexey Varlamov, Rector of the Gorky Literary Institute, writer; Kirill Rodin, Russian Public Opinion Research
Cente Director for work with state authorities; Tatyana Muzhitskaya, psychologist and writer; Alexander Chulok, Director of the Center for Scientific and Technological Forecasting of the Higher School of Economics Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, Doctor of Economics. Each considered happiness from a different point of view (neurobiological, sociological, economic, psychological), depending on their area of expertise.
A recording of the broadcast can be viewed here.
Фото: Unsplash