Joseph Pallattil
“Something to do, someone to love and something to hope for”, rules for happiness, said by famous philosopher Immanuel Kant. Happiness is our aim. We all are searching for what makes us happy. The happiness is the pillar on which our entire life is built upon. In the metaphysical Principles of Virtue, Kant describes happiness as continuous well-being, enjoyment of life, complete satisfaction with one’s condition. In the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant defines happiness as “the state of a rational being in the world in the whole of whose existence everything goes according to his wish and will.” Happiness is not pleasure. It is not the virtuous, joyful feeling associated with a moral life. Therefore, Immanuel Kant placed greater priority on following moral law rather than on pursuing happiness. Happiness is simply getting what you want. However, Kant never said that happiness is valueless. He really affirmed the necessity of happiness in human life.
Kant says that we can achieve happiness in our life. The true happiness is achieved by following the rules for happiness. That is, “something to do, someone to love and something to hope for. If we have something meaningful to do, and if we have someone to love, and something to hope for or look forward to, we find an inner peace that leads to a calm, contented happiness. Something to do is our Action. Someone to love is our relation. And, something to hope for is our aspiration. Action, relation and aspiration really make us happy.
We cannot know what happiness is in general. We can give some examples that is similar to happiness, such as health, honour or wealth. Happiness depends on person. The understanding of happiness is relative to person to person. Therefore, we cannot form sure concept of happiness. We wish to be happy. But, we cannot completely express what we really wish or want. We often see that happiness can bring disappointment because, we feel we are still not happy. Therefore, we can say that happiness changes from time to time, place to place and person to person. Kant argued that “happiness is such an indeterminate concept that although every human being wishes to attain it, he can never say what he really wishes and wills.”
