Pursuing Happiness Should Be Our Most Important Goal
A philosopher’s take on the universal pursuit of happiness, and why, perhaps, it’s humanity’s most important goal.
It’s quite audacious for anyone to say that happiness should be humanity’s most important pursuit. Obviously, not everyone does things just to make themselves feel happy. Clearly, we suffer, and we find meaning in that suffering. And surely, we’ve been warned so many times about the suffering one experiences on the hedonic treadmill.
Philosophers throughout history have been debating whether happiness is something worth pursuing. It’s a subject of heavy debate in axiology and — in my field of interest — moral philosophy.
In ancient Greek philosophy, Aristotle believed that happiness, what he calls eudaimonia, is the highest good all humankind could and should aspire to attain. Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics further discusses the importance of happiness in one’s moral life. Happiness, Aristotle argues, is what gives our actions meaning.
The 20th century Enlightenment has also given birth to one of our most prominent ethical theories called utilitarianism: the notorious ethical theory that justifies murder and rape if they create a world where more people are happy. Utilitarians will argue…