Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of... Happiness?

The Great American Experiment began with the words Thomas Jefferson drafted in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

These are words that nearly every American knows by heart. They are the justifying ideal of our founding fathers, the driving force of what it means to live in the United States.

But then you look at what's going on today: extreme partisanship at the highest levels of government, mega-corporations controlling much of the wealth, fierce populist undercurrents in the working class, continued institutional racism and gender bias. And it makes you wonder, "What happened? Is this what is meant by happiness? Who's happy?"

I'm not such a pessimist that I see the problems my country faces as insurmountable. Yet I'm also not such an idealist that I believe things will just get better on their own with enough time. Something has to shift in our national paradigm, and I wonder if our vision of "happiness" is the key.

Aristotelian Happiness

We can explore the philosophical understandings of happiness by going all the way back to Aristotle.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and human pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that to which all things aim. (Ethics 1094a1-3)

Verbally there is very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness and identify living well and doing well with being happy. (Ethics 1095a17)

Aristotle's First Ethical Principle

There are two parts to the foundation for Aristotle's ethical framework: an "aim" and a "good."

There are lots of "goods" that people aim at, though there can be much disagreement over the quality of those pursuits. For a gambler, another pull at the slot machine is a good, as it has the potential for an even better good of a payout. Or for a White Helmet in Syria, a person rescued from a bombed-out apartment building is a good, as it means one more person has been saved from the tragedy of their civil war.

We can look at these pursuits at face value and say, "Well, of course, the White Helmet is aiming towards the greater good! He is saving a life, while the gambler is just looking to earn some easy money."

That's where the "aim" comes in for Aristotle. The above examples become more complicated if the aims of each agent change. What if the gambler has promised that any earnings she makes that night will go to the White Helmets? And what if the White Helmet is only saving the child's life to make himself famous? Do you see how the aim changes our evaluation of the good?

You might still say that saving the life is better because the end result is better, while the gambler probably will not make enough money to help in a meaningful way. Regardless, we are still evaluating both the aim and the good.

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Happiness as the ultimate good

Aristotle establishes the greatest good as "that to which all things aim." In other words, if we can find one common good that all goods ultimately pursue, we can call this the greatest Good.

In Aristotle's ethic, he believes that all things ultimately aim for happiness.

Using the above examples, the gambler takes another pull at the slot machine in the hopes of winning a large sum of money. That money will go to bring financial security, allowing her to purchase things that will bring happiness to her and her family. For the White Helmet, saving the life of a child brings happiness to the child and its family, and he receives happiness by knowing that it was his significant action that brought about this end result.

In these cases, both agents are seeking happiness - with different aims and different goods - but the ultimate result of each is happiness. Aristotle notes these differences of pursuit:

But in regard to what happiness is they differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. For the former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honour; they differ, however, from one another - and often even the same man identifies it with different things, with health when he is ill, with wealth when he is poor; but conscious of their ignorance, they admire those who proclaim some great ideal that is above their comprehension. (Ethics 1095a20-26)

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In Pursuit of Happiness

How can Aristotle's ethic of happiness help us understand our own modern "pursuit of happiness?"

It all depends on what happiness we pursue, as while "all men [and women!] are created equal," all happiness is not created equal.

Aristotle qualifies the good that people pursue, and lifts up that which is ultimately in service of others above ourselves.

It is true of the good man too that he does many acts for the sake of his friends and his country, and if necessary dies for them; for he will throw away both wealth and honours and in general the goods that are objects of competition, gaining for himself nobility; since he would prefer a short period of intense pleasure to a long one of mild enjoyment, a twelve-month of noble life to many years of humdrum existence, and one great and noble action to many trivial ones. (Ethics 1169a18-25)

The key words here: "for the sake of his friends and his country." For the good of the other.

And that is the call to humanity today. As we go about our lives in pursuit of happiness, whose happiness are we most concerned for? Anyone can see that the bickering of Congress, the manipulations of Wall Street, the xenophobia of the masses, and the discriminations of the ignorant - these all derive personal happiness at the expense of the other.

Let it be our intention to live virtuous lives, seeking a true happiness that places the needs of others first and foremost.