Poczucie szczęścia homo oeconomicus i człowieka szczodrego

Abstract

Happiness as an essential goal of human life is the subject of research of many scientific disciplines like philosophy, sociology, psychology, medicine, economics and theology. The aim of the article is to answer two basic questions: how happy can homo economicus be? and how happy can a generous man be? Firstly, a model of homo economicus is presented and then it is built into the model of generous man. The article presents results of empirical studies indicating happiness factors. On the basis of these, two main theses are formulated. The first states that money and higher income contribute to happiness, while the second one indicates that being generous also contributes to happiness. Measuring the strength of the impact of both factors on human happiness remains a methodological problem.