Happiness, Morality, and Freedom

Download or read book Happiness, Morality, and Freedom written by Arthur Melnick and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To be happy is to be emotionally and evaluatively satisfied with one’s life according to a standard of satisfaction one can claim as one’s own as a reasoning being. Since there is no definitive proof of what the standard of satisfaction is, being open to the devising and testing of standards by others is part of claiming one’s own standard as a reasoning being. This open-ness is equivalent to being open to and hence respecting and caring for the pursuit of happiness of others. Since such respect and care is what it is to be moral, it follows that one cannot be happy without being moral.