Happiness

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Abstract

Pascal argues that the fundamental driver of human activity in general is the search for happiness. Philosophy (in particular Stoicism) cannot achieve this goal. Pascal’s views are compared and contrasted with those of Aristotle: like Aristotle, Pascal thinks that all people seek happiness; but, unlike Aristotle, he conceives happiness in terms of pleasure and does not identify it with the supreme good; the supreme good is God, and happiness would consist in being united with him. Our relentless search for a happiness that experience tells us is unattainable is a mark of the residual sense of loss that has afflicted us since the Fall; only God can fill our fundamental emptiness. A true religion (supposing there is one) must both account for the contradictions of human nature and offer a prospect of happiness through union with God. Pascal’s conception of happiness is contrasted with Bertrand Russell’s thoroughly secular account. Bernard Williams’s argument that immortality would be undesirable is also considered.