PHENOMA practical book for schools 2019 PHENOMA practical book for schools 2019 | Page 66

A Philosophical Dossier on Happiness
probability theory. In philosophy he was an early pioneer in existentialism 12 . As a writer on
theology and religion he was a defender of Christianity.
Quotes
“How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man!” (​ Pensées, n. 143 ​ )
“Diversion. ​ —As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it
into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.” (​ Pensées, n. 168)
MONTESQUIEU: Happiness is… a inner disposition 13
Short biography
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède and de Montesquieu 14
(1689–1755), was a Legal Professional, a Government Official, a Writer, a Philosopher. He
was born in Aquitaine, region of France, during the Age of Enlightenment. Through his
education and travels he became a sharp social commentator and political thinker, who
gained the respect of his fellow philosophers with his masterwork ​ The Spirit of Laws​ ,
which went on to have a major influence on English and American government.
...Not only Philosophy …
THE​ ​ DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Happiness is… a right
A conflict between American colonists and British soldiers began in April 1775. A In
mid-June 1776, a five-man committee including ​ Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and
Benjamin Franklin was tasked with drafting a formal statement of the colonies’
intentions. The Congress formally adopted the ​ Declaration of Independence​ –written
A catch-all term for those philosophers who consider the nature of the human condition as a key
philosophical problem
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“​ Happiness or unhappiness consists in a certain arrangement of organs, either favorable or
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unfavorable.[...]With a favorable arrangement, accidents such as wealth, honor, health, or illness either increase
or decrease happiness. On the other hand, with an unfavorable arrangement, the accidents increase or decrease
unhappiness.[...]When we speak of happiness or unhappiness, we are always mistaken, for we judge conditions
and not persons. A condition is never an unhappy one when it pleases, and when we say that a man in a certain
situation is unhappy, this means only that we would be unhappy if we, with the organs that we have, were in his
place.[...]Our soul, which has the faculty of receiving through the organs both pleasant and painful feelings, has
the resourcefulness to procure the former and discard the latter. And in this, art constantly supplies the defects of
nature. Thus, we constantly correct external objects; we subtract from them what might harm us, and add what
can make them agreeable.[...]To write a treatise on happiness, it is essential to lay down the [479] limit to which
happiness can go by man’s nature, and not begin by requiring that he have the happiness of Angels or other
Powers happier than we imagine.[...]Happiness consists more in a general disposition of mind and heart, which
opens up to the happiness that man’s nature can offer, than in the multiplicity of certain happy moments in life. It
consists more in a certain capacity to receive these happy moments. It does not consist in pleasure, but in an
easy capacity to receive pleasure, in a well-founded expectation to find it when one wants to, in the experience
that one is not generally put off by the things that make for the felicity of others.”( ​ My thoughts)
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For more details https://www.biography.com/people/charles-louis-de-secondat-21292453
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