Abstract
Abstract The idea of happiness holds an utmost position among the great themes of meditation in philosophy, and it is a constant concern for any human being. From this viewpoint, the concept has been a red thread in the history of mankind and, as such, it has provided philosophers, theological scholars, writers and poets, as well as common people with enough reasons to analyze the complex issues it engenders – what is happiness, what are its sources, or to what extent can it be achieved? Significant scholars in the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary world, the Christian, Hebrew and Arab traditions, polytheistic and non-theistic approaches, they all have debated, from various perspectives, the possibility or impossibility of happiness on earth, what a happy life or true happiness is, or the path one has to follow in order to achieve it. This study aims to analyze critically the manner in which the wish to be happy and the hope of achieving this state are approached by the scholar Petre Andrei in his work Despre fericire [On happiness] . Thus, the psychological origins of happiness and the possibility of being truly happy, the possible causes and the contents of happiness, its social and ethical grounds, vulnerability to outside conditions and the role of practical wisdom in the achievement of the state of happiness, happiness as an impulse to moral action – all these are major landmarks in Andrei's approach, and the author's answers are both competent and profound. In this context, we believe that the interaction and mutual conditioning between all these elements, highlighted by the Romanian philosopher, and the way he mixed the theoretical perspective with our representations bring an added-value to the understanding and analysis of this phenomenon as a whole, contributing, to the same extent, to the creation of an authentic picture of the way in which the fundamental mechanisms of happiness can be recognized and clarified.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call