Dr. Ann T. Orlando
17 January 2013
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Syllabus Review
Paper Schedule
Homily Requirements
What is Happiness
Augustine, On the Happy Life
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Contemporary English and Philosophy
Greek
◦ Philosophy
◦ Bible
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Latin
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‘Happiness,’ as Augustine says about time, “I
know what it is until someone asks me to
define it.” (Confessions, Book XI)
Possible components of happiness may be
◦ Meaningfulness (satisfaction)
◦ Contentment (pleasure)
◦ Stability (tranquility)
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Time scale
◦ Moment to moment
◦ Lifetime
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Psychologists often think of happiness as
rooted in the psychology of the individual,
◦ Opposite of depression
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Philosophers often think of happiness as a
state of well being or flourishing
◦ Value judgments about well-being
◦ Social implications
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Hedonism: Pleasurable experiences
Desire: Getting what we want
Objective: Engaged in ‘good’ activities; based
on value judgments
◦ We take what is self-sufficient to be that which on
its own makes life worthy of choice and lacking in
nothing. We think happiness to be such, and indeed
the thing most of all worth choosing, not counted
as just one thing among others’ (Aristotle,
Nicomachean Ethics)
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Croesus (595-547 BC), wealthiest of Greek kings in
Asia Minor
◦ Herodotus and others tells the tale of Croesus as prelude to
Greek-Persian Wars
◦ And as a cautionary tale of human hubris
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Croesus in his wealth and seeming happiness, asked
the wise man Solon who was the happiest of men
◦ Solon responds there were three genuinely happy men:
Tellus who died fighting for his country; and two brothers
who died peacefully in their sleep after caring for their
mother
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Shortly after, the Persian King Cyrus conquers
Croesus, and burns him on a large pyre
Solon’s adage: call no man happy while he lives
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In early Platonic dialog Euthydemus, Socrates
assumes everyone wants to be happy, and
asks how to become happy
◦ The desire to be happy is one of the few ‘selfevident’ truths that Socrates accepts
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Questions of happiness further explored in
Symposium (focused on individuals) and
Republic focused on society
◦ In Republic Socrates says Croesus might have been
happy if he had looked to contemplation of wisdom
rather than wealth and power for happiness
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Primarily addressed in Nichomachean Ethics
◦ Which begins by reminding readers of Croesus and Solon
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Some external goods are necessary (but not
sufficient) for happiness: good friends, children,
money, health, physical beauty (1.73)
◦ Without a sufficient amount of these one will be unhappy
◦ Some of these are within one’s control through moral
goodness (virtue)
◦ But luck or fortune also has a role in providing the
conditions for happiness
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Given that the external conditions for happiness
are met, a man can only be genuinely happy
through contemplation (13.37-43)
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Epicurean notion of happiness
◦ Absence of pain or mental anguish
◦ To remove fear of eternal judgment, recognize that there
is no life after death
◦ Curb physical desires to what is easily attainable
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Stoic notion of happiness
◦ Accept lot in life ordained by Providence as witnessed by
a life of virtue
◦ Curb physical desires to what is provided by Providence
◦ Example: Seneca On the Happy Life, one can be happy
on the pyre, as Croesus should have been if he with
fortitude had accepted his fate
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Eudaimonia: Good fortune, happy
◦ Most common term in Greek philosophy; includes a
sense of good luck
◦ In Aristotle, this may be obtained through a good moral
life
◦ In Epicurus something one achieves through ataraxia, or
mental tranquility
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Makarios: Fortunate, happy, blessed
◦ Often used in connection with happiness of the gods
◦ In Aristotle the highest form of happiness
◦ Not attainable by humans (who are only mortal) in
Epicurus
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Felicitas: Happiness, good fortune, success
(might be close to Greek eudaimonia)
Beatum: Happiness, blessedness (close to
Greek makarios)
◦ “The mere search for higher happiness, not merely
its actual attainment, is a prize beyond all human
wealth or honor or physical pleasure.” Cicero, from
fragment of Hortensius
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NB in English, happiness comes from Old
Norse happ meaning random chance, for
example, haphazard
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One of (the) earliest work extant from
Augustine
◦ Written 386/387 in Cassiciacum
◦ Dialog with those on retreat with Augustine prior to
their Baptism (see Confessions Book IX)
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Written while he was also writing Against the
Academics (Skeptics)
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One Book, 36 paragraphs divided among 4 sections
Occasion is Augustine’s birthday party
1.1-6 Is an introduction and a ‘cover letter’ to
Theodore, a mutual friend of Augustine and Ambrose
in Milan
2.7-16 Beginning of the dialog first examining the
anthropology of body and soul, then moving to the
consideration of the happiness of body and soul
3.17-22 Next day, the dialog continues; discussing
the relation of God to human happiness
4.23-36 Third day begins in the baths; a discussion
of need and happiness; the Trinity and happiness.
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Opposition to skepticism
Happiness and friendship
Role of Monica
Early Trinitarian understanding of Augustine
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Augustine, “On the Happy Life,” translated
Roland Teske in A Trilogy on Faith and
Happiness. 2012: New City Press, New York.
Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle, Preface,
Chapter 10
Reread Augustine, Confessions VIII.7, the
encounter with the ‘happy’ drunk
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