The Concept of Happiness

INTRODUCTION 

Aristotle in the commencement of his Metaphysics wrote that “All men by nature desire to know, this existential passion or desire is quite innate and intrinsic in man. As a result of this urge to know, man involved himself in a curious and inquisitive search into reasons of his existence, perhaps Socrates also realised this fact and maintained that “an unexamined life is not worth living”. 

In other words, the life of man on earth must have a purpose and in order for us to grasp this end of human life on earth an intensive study is indispensable, to provide an answer to these timely interrogatives. Scholars, thinkers, erudite philosopher from many schools of thought have given divers views and opinions on this subject matter. 

Saint Augustine of Hippo argues and advocates that “HAPPINESS” is the purpose of human life and actions. He submits that happiness is the essence of human existence. However following this Augustine trend of thesis, would be that man by virtue of his personhood has a natural inclination to happiness. 

Nevertheless, the postulation of the end of human life as a search for happiness has altogether become problematic. The issue to tussle with is how to effect a true understanding of the notion of happiness. What do we mean when we say that someone is happy? In this wise, I intend to contribute towards understanding the one human objective “To Achieve Happiness” this will be done by a critical appraisal of The Concept of Happiness in Saint Augustine’s Philosophy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page                                                                                                      i

Certification                                                                                                  ii

Dedication                                                                                                    iii

Acknowledgements                                                                                    iv - v

Table of contents                                                                                             vi - vii Introduction          viii- ix

CHAPTER ONE: 

1:1The Notion and Nature of Happiness         1 - 4

1:2Happiness as the ultimate purpose of Human existence         4 - 10 

1:3The Identity View         10 - 17

1:4The Collection View         17 - 22

References         23- 28

CHAPTER TWO

2.1Happiness as the Art of Living        29 - 31 

2.2 Happiness as the ultimate end        31 - 37

2.3 Happiness, Morality and Immortality             37 – 43

References        44 - 46

CHAPTER THREE

3.1 Justice as a source of Happiness        47 - 52

3.2 Plato and Augustine on True Happiness         52- 54

Conclusion         54 – 55

References       56

Bibliography        57- 58