Both Aristotle and the Declaration of Independence use the word happiness in a sense which refers to the quality of a whole human life—what makes it good as a whole, in spite of the fact that we are not having fun or a good time every minute of it. Does the false lure of an easy utopia ultimately strip human beings of the deeper sorts of agency and responsibility that ought to be involved in a “life well lived”?

Topics: Greek, philosophy, happiness, United States, Athens, founding fathers, Aristotle, ethos, declaration of independence