PHENOMA practical book for schools 2019 PHENOMA practical book for schools 2019 | Page 63

A Philosophical Dossier on Happiness
A Philosophical Dossier on Happiness
This would be a short and easy guide through some philosophers’ important
thoughts on happiness: many authors, many different points of view…
If You want, you could use the footnotes to delve deeper into the matter!
HAPPINESS
IS...
Social
Justice Wisdom,
Awareness
X X
Plato
Aristotle X
Epicurus X
Aquinas
Faith
Impossible
X
Montesquieu
X
X
X
X
Schopenhauer X
Nietzsche X
Fromm X
Camus
X
X
Kierkegaard
PLATO:
Pleasure
X
X
Pascal
Morality
X
X
Happiness is… community and justice
Short Biography
Born circa 428 B.C.E., ancient Greek philosopher Plato 1 was a student of Socrates and a
teacher of Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained
discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the
philosophy of language. Plato founded the ​ Academy ​ in Athens, one of the first institutions
of higher learning in the Western world. He died in Athens circa 348 B.C.E. Some of his most
notable works include ​ The Apology of Socrates, The Republic 2 , Cratylus,
1
2
For more details http://www.iep.utm.edu/plato/
“[...]For we shall say that while it would not surprise us if these men thus living prove to be the most happy, yet
the object on which we fixed our eyes in the establishment of our state was not the exceptional happiness of any
one class but the greatest possible happiness of the city as a whole. For we thought that in a state so constituted
we should be most likely to discover justice as we should injustice in the worst governed state, and that when we
had made these out we could pass judgement on the issue of our long inquiry. Our first task then, we take it, is to
mold the model of a happy state—we are not isolating a small class in it and postulating their happiness, but that
of the city as a whole.” ​ ( ​ Republic, IV, 420b-420c​ )
1