Everyone in the world can agree on the fact that seek happiness in life. However, the matter of what that happiness is and how to obtain it is always the hard part of this overly-simplistic goal.
A few semesters ago, I read the Summa Theologica in Philosophy 201 class by Thomas Aquinas, and was intrigued by his thoughts, even though I didn't necessarily agree with them. In 'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility' by Anthony and Charles Kenny, the first chapter address the subject of Happiness through the views of a variety of philosophers such as Aristotle, Epicurus, and Augustine. All of these names were familiar to Aquinas, who is also mentioned in the chapter.
However, Thomas Aquinas' ideas on happiness were also different. While everyone desires to be happy, he says that happiness can never truly be found until you die and join God in doing so. From there, Aquinas points out the irony in humans wanting happiness, and attaining it by giving up the most valuable part of them - their life. "How can the necessary desire for happiness, he asks,
be reconciled with that freedom of the will that is an essential attribute of human beings?" [p. 23]
To a certain extent, I feel that our entire lives we spend trying to be 'happy'. But happiness is just a state of being, and we will not constantly find ourselves being happy. Besides, once we become happy, have we achieved our life's goal?
I found this intriguing because I used to think the same way - the only thing I really wanted out of life is happiness. But after taking PHIL201 and reading some books like these, I start to realize that wanting happiness out of life is not only a loaded statement, but it is also ultimately unattainable. And besides, if you read Thomas Aquinas far enough, as I recall he states finally that seeking happiness itself in life is merely a means to an end, much life everything else, with the exception of God, of course.
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