THE CONCEPT OF HAPPINESS – INDIVIDUAL RIGHT OR DIVINE GIFT 1

Abstract

In this research, I will try to outline a definition of the concept of Happiness by answering a few questions that have been the subject of research by philosophers, theologians and jurists. Can happiness be considered a civil freedom or a subjective right? Is the right to happiness one and the same as the right to the pursuit of happiness? Can we reduce Happiness to material aspects or do we have to transcend them? I will also try to show that happiness should not be understood in a restrictive way as updating a virtue, even if that virtue might be considered the most important of all other virtues. Happiness should not be equated in an exclusive manner with the activity of contemplation or reduced to a legal concept.

Headnote

Abstract: In this research, I will try to outline a definition of the concept of Happiness by answering a few questions that have been the subject of research by philosophers, theologians and jurists. Can happiness be considered a civil freedom or a subjective right? Is the right to happiness one and the same as the right to the pursuit of happiness? Can we reduce Happiness to material aspects or do we have to transcend them?

I will also try to show that happiness should not be understood in a restrictive way as updating a virtue, even if that virtue might be considered the most important of all other virtues. Happiness should not be equated in an exclusive manner with the activity of contemplation or reduced to a legal concept.

Keywords: Happiness, individual law, freedom, eternal life.

Happiness as already due condition and reward

It is not possible to state with complete conviction what happiness is, although there are several definitions. And the concept of "right" has had several explanations over the ages, none complete and satisfactory. As familiar and cultivated in the works of political philosophy, the idea of happiness remains an enigma.2 Despite this, there is currently a current of opinion that calls for "happiness" to become an objective of government political agendas.3 The adoption of public policies should take into account the happiness index and as we know, public policies usually materialise through laws. That's how we get to the relationship between happiness and law.

According to the Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language,4 happiness is defined as the state of full soul, intense and full contentment. In a presentation of "The Most Beautiful History of Happiness"5 the author appreciated that "The history of happiness is in fact the history of thought, which is actually the history of life, both of life in general and of one's own life. No one has ever come up with a clear answer on a question about happiness, but many have come up with attractive and noteworthy theories or ideas and to integrate into their own lives." Just as stated in the literature, "... for Epicurus happiness lies not so much in the large number of pleasures as in the absence of suffering. All we have to do is follow the urge of the maxim: settle for a little! The adherent of the doctrine will find supreme happiness in the most modest living conditions, the only ones that can ensure his happiness in the form of a peace of mind (ataraxia gr. - "absence of disturbances")6

Forming a definition of happiness,7 Aristotle analyzes in Nicomahic Ethics, on the one hand, the concept of good, and on the other - human realities.8 Happiness is the supreme good and the supreme pleasure, both elements being inextricable.9 Its essence lies in the activity of the soul conforming to reason or not without reason, it must condone with virtue, with the most perfect virtue, throughout a perfect life. So the happy man is the one who always acts according to perfect virtue, endowed with sufficient external goods to enable him to apply virtue throughout his life and not in syncope.10 Aristotle suggests a "duty to be happy".11 For him, eudaimony ("happiness" or "prosperity") is a basic concept in defining human perfection and a purpose of the community.12

In a study on the universal valences of the concept of "Human Rights" referring to John Locke's conception of the natural right to happiness, it "... claims that natural law legitimizes everything a person does about his or her life. God created free and equal people, in the natural state a natural equality is imposed, there is even a law of nature that a person does not care about the life, health, freedom or possessions of others.13

Some contemporary philosophers14 appreciate that "the major difficulty with him the concept of happiness is that everyone imagines that he knows better than others what it is. The fact that we are all experts in happiness was one of the causes that undermined the prestige of this concept. Today you risk being ridiculed if you dare to upplay the political ideal of happiness, as Aristotle did. For most, however, the word "happiness" is not at all appropriate for quantitative research of a psycho-sociological or economic nature, it must be replaced by others: "standard of living", "quality of life", etc.

Absolute happiness, reward of life in harmony with divinity

In the theologians' view, human nature bears in its essence longing for the paradisiacal state, the nostalgia of Eden and perfection. Followers of the Adamic sin, people have always felt the Creator's call, though the alienation from It amplifies longing, to oblivion. Thus, we tend as creatures, to taste every day of what for the moment can translate into a joy. These fused joys can generate happiness, and this cycle keeps repeating itself and cannot be exhausted because the spring and the unbroken nature of man is inexhaustible.15

The steadfastness in a philosophy of earthly things, the attachment to the material ones and especially the sorrow tried to obtain an unacquired happiness, erodes the aspirations to resemble our Spring and acquire a non-material Happiness. We cannot be fooled that we will have the same state of happiness by acquiring material pleasures, in contrast to pleasures that we cannot achieve but are much deeper. All these premises lead us to think of a preliminary conclusion, The Fear is about being and not about having.

Contemporary man is increasingly immersed in pleasures that overshadow his true Happiness. It creates the illusion of a pseudohappiness, here on Earth, the thought of an Eternal, unrepentant Happiness, being atrophied by a hedonistic conception that teaches that everything is now and here. We have forgotten that we are strangers on this earth and our root is in heaven, not on earth.16

Happiness is for contemporary man a way of living limited to having, to do, to consume, without realizing that the human being itself is consumed and lost. It is much easier to have a palpable, empirical Happiness on the horizon than an unattainable ideal, often unattainable. We would risk a failure that would send us to pleasure and we would find in this our temporary happiness.

What for many philosophers, the concept of happiness can be defined in different aspects, in Christianity represents a paradoxical notion. Godoriented man is bipolar. On the one hand, he patiently receives the hardships of everyday life and, on the other hand, finds the happiness to come closer. Thus appears the so-called happy sorrow.17 The troubles of everyday life do not despair of the joy of being, and the problems of love for Christ become new reasons for joy. Christ Himself rejoices those who are persecuted and suffer for His name.18 The longing for Christ is a source of happiness that erases any sorrow.

This paradoxical logic becomes for some beings a way of life, in which happiness is not regarded as a momentary joy, but a continuous completion. As soon as a man acquires self-awareness he wonders what really makes him happy, and by the answer he gives, he determines his position towards each of the everyday problems. If man gives himself an answer that he considers satisfactory for the moment, it creates the maturity necessary to approach the problem of happiness. Otherwise, it becomes confused, causing incoherence and disorder, finding a deviant way to correctly relate to the appearance that makes him happy. The continuous distortions of moral and social opinions, the consciousness that urges self-improvement, shed light on the lack of a concrete answer to the question that plagues him in order to be happy and thus creates the desire for deep state of happiness, as a sense of life.

Absolute happiness cannot be experienced in a limited space, because all that is material is in a relatively perfect state. Man, who is made of nothing, cannot find the meaning of life or happiness if he seeks it within the borders of the world, which also comes from nothing. As long as we dwell on the created world, we become slaves to natural needs, and happiness also becomes a temporary necessity towards a goal we do not know enough.19 Therefore, the man who approaches immanent life no longer manages to see the substantial purpose, the best example being given by the atheist existentialism that denies any meaning of life and limits the concept of happiness to ephemeral things in the world of contemporary consumption.

Happiness seen as unity in diversity

Influenced by Aristotle, Locke, and Beccaria, the Founding Fathers of the United States transposed a political-moral vision of happiness for the first time into a constitutional act. Most of the constitutions of American states also provide for the right to seek happiness. Given that this value is a current concern for most human beings, the courts of these States have inevitably ended up with cases in which everyone's right to seek happiness has been invoked. The courts weighed whether the private interest in achieving happiness was not contrary to society's interests. Since seeking happiness means doing whatever you want, respecting the limits imposed by the constitution and laws (to the extent that these normative acts meet the rigors of lato sensu proportionality), happiness and freedom become equivalent terms. After all, the "rule of law" is nothing more than the translation of the word Rechtsstaat. "The state and the right do not exist for the safety of happiness, but rather for other values (e.g., safety)."20 Guaranteeing happiness is not a mission of the state and the law. Their mission is to ensure the pursuit of happiness, through simple routes that, if fair, must be respected: laws and the constitution.

Constantin Dissescu stressed that "Freedom is the conscious exercise of will, it is the will in competition with life, it is the right of the intelligent being to develop in its order according to reason. The right derives from freedom... Right and freedom are confused, which is why freedom is a right, as a right is a freedom... Man has the right to happiness and life, destinations that cannot be achieved without freedom, for where there is no freedom there can be happiness."21 Montesquieu defined freedom as "the possibility of doing what the laws allow; if a citizen could do what they forbid, he would no longer have freedom, for others could do the same."22

When asked about the differences between law and freedom, Frédéric Sudre stated: "Apart from the fact that the distinction between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other, and between 'rights of...', which imply an abstention on the part of the State, and 'rights to ...', which claim benefits from it, comes from extremely simplified terminology , whereby several individual freedoms appear as "rights to...", in relevant international conventions: the right to freedom and security, the right to a fair trial, the right to freedom of expression, etc. Thus, it should be noted that there is no trenchant opposition between the two categories of rights.'23

From the above, we can appreciate that happiness is also a civil freedom, in the sense that its holder, the man, the individual, the person, can do whatever he wants to be happy, to seek happiness, of course, respecting the rights and freedoms of others, only that freedom is not expressly regulated, such as freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, etc. Of course, this freedom of the person to seek happiness is not and cannot be an absolute one, it must be exercised within the limits of law and morality.

The French doctrine emphasized that "The natural state of man is to be free, with society having an obligation to respect and protect his freedom. The exercise of individual freedom is for the man who lives in society the first of all goods, the one whose preservation is most of his happiness. The governors and the law must therefore protect it and defend it with religious attention against any arbitrary act on the part of ministers and their agents."24

Conclusions

Based on the above, we can say that from a legal point of view the concept of happiness or the 'right to happiness' is a civil freedom which can be located well alongside freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, etc., and which together with other human rights and freedoms, they come together in the rights of personality. In this respect we will try a definition of the legal concept of happiness, stating that this is a faculty, which any person has, to create all the material and spiritual conditions necessary to reach the state of full soul, intense and full contentment, within the limits of law and morality. To the extent that the State, through public policies, will be bound by a constitutional provision before its citizens to contribute to the creation of the conditions necessary for the material and spiritual well-being of these, then the freedom to be happy may be expressly enshrined, as a fundamental freedom, together with the other freedoms, already expressly regulated.

Although happiness is not a concept that will become absolutely through simple legislative regulation, I am convinced that it will not be long before happiness, as civil freedom, finds an express legislative consequence in European law (as a result of the increasingly insistent demands of public opinion) and then, implicitly, in our legislation. The spirit of rationalism and enlightenment has provoked the constant search for metaphysical solutions to find the meaning of modern man's life. A strange malanj of Western rationalism and Oriental mysticism was thus created, which found expression in the New Age movement that promotes the concept of happiness through sensual satisfaction, the multitude of products, the variety of offers, the abundance of possibilities, the systematic promotion of superfluous needs. The main unifying factor of mankind is not a certain common aspiration in finding collective happiness, but promotes the slogan live your life! That is why the happiness that man can find in today's world is summed up in what can be promoted: the intense life viewed as a finality, excluding another life, outside the senses, in which happiness would acquire absolute, eternal valences. Man experiences the decomposition of society in his personal life, seeking self-confirmation and fulfillment by himself, seeks happiness at different points of the earth, in order to fill the void that lies in his soul.25

Footnote

1 This text was presented at the International Conference The European Human Rights - the Right to Happiness, 7th Edition, Bucharest, 12-14 December 2019.

2 John C. Ford, The Natural Law and the Right to Pursue Happiness, Natural Law Institute Proceedings, nr. 4/1951, pag. 104.

3 Kurt Bayertz and Thomas Gutmann, Happiness and Law, Ratio Juris, No. 2/2012, pp. 236. A British economist, Richard Layard, calls for "a revolution in government. Happiness should become the goals of our policies" (Richard Layard - Happiness. Lessons from a New Science, ed. Penguin, London, 2005, p. 145, apud Kurt Bayertz and Thomas Gutmann, op.cit., p. 236).

4 Romanian Academy, Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language, Encyclopedic Universe Publishing House, Bucharest 1998, p. 374.

5 Ion-Valentin Ceauşescu Publish Date: April 23, 2014 in: Book Chronicle The Most Beautiful History of Happiness André Comte-Sponville, Jean Delumeau, Arlette Farge published in May 2007 by ART Bucharest, French translation by Marina Muresanu Ionescu (André Comte-Sponville, Jean Delumeau, Arletette Farge - The Most Beautiful History of Happiness - Good Signs https://semnebune.ro/2014/andre-comte-sponvillejean-delumeau-arlette-farge-cea-mai-frumoasa-istorie-a-fericirii/#ixz z4S8sWaF7T)

6 http ://socioumane.ro/blog/ionelcioara/files/2012/10/teorii-etice-standard2 .pdf

7 Tudor Panţîru, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, Right to Seek Happiness, Public Law Magazine. No. 1/2015, p. 26-35.

8 Aristotle, Nicomahic Ethics, ed. II, Scientific and Encyclopedic Publishing House Bucharest, 1998, p. 8. Translation Stella Petecel.

9 Aristotle, Nicomahic Ethics, ed. II, Scientific and Encyclopedic Publishing House Bucharest, 1998, p. 40.

10 Aristotle, Nicomahic Ethics, ed. II, Scientific and Encyclopedic Publishing House Bucharest, 1998, p. 11.

11 Idem.

12 Fred D. Miller, Jr., Nature, Justice and Rights in Aristotle's Politics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995, pag. 18-19, apud Joseph R. Grodin, Rediscovering the State Constitutional Right to Happiness and Safety, 25 Hastings Constitutional Law Quaterly nr. 1/1997, 11.

13 Isabela Stancea, Human Rights - a concept with universal valences, University "Constantin Brâncoveanu" Piteşti, Faculty of Legal, Administrative and Communication Science

http://www.strategiimanageriale.ro/images/images_site/articole/article_186660ff 8046cd9b994464d2f35d86 9f.pdf.

14 Gabriel Sopunaru, Catalin Stancu and Irina Oana Baba, Happiness versus GDP, material presented at the International Conference "Right to Happiness", under the aegis of the Christian University "Dimitrie Cantemir", from 13 to 15 December 2012.

15 William Keith, A History of Greek Philosophy, The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, Cambridge University Press, 1962, vol. 1, p. 113.

16 Saint Ignatius Briancianinov, Ascetic Experiences, vol. 1, Sophia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2000, p. 98.

17 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, About the Purpose after God, ed. W. Jaeger, vol. 8.1, p. 86.

18 Holy Scripture, Matthew, Chapter 5, verse 11, Bucharest, Publishing House of the Biblical and Missionary Institution of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 2006, p. 612.

19 Richard Kraut, Two Conceptions of Happiness, Philosophical Review, North Carolina, Duke University Press, 1979, p.167-197.

20 Kurt Bayertz and Thomas Gutmann, Happiness and Law, Ratio Juris, No. 2/2012, pp. 236. A British economist, Richard Layard, calls for "a revolution in government. Happiness should become the goals of our policies" (Richard Layard - Happiness. Lessons from a New Science, ed. Penguin, London, 2005, p. 14.

21 C. Dissescu, Constitutional Law, Ed. SOCEC-Co Library, Anonymous Society, Bucharest, 1915, pp. 440-441.

22 Montesquieu, About the Spirit of Laws, Vol. I, Scientific Publishing House, Bucharest, 1957, pp. 82-83.

23 Frédéric Sudre, European and International Human Rights Law, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, 2006, p. 185.

24 Th. Garé, Le droit des personnes, 2e édition, Dalloz Publishing House, Paris 2003, p.4.

25 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Ascetical Works, translated by Virginia W. Callahan, Washington, Catholic University Press, vol. 58., 1967, p. 134.

References

References

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Panţîru, T., (2015), Right to Seek Happiness, Public Law Magazine. No. 1, pp. 26-35.

Soaparu, G., Stancu C. and Irina Oana Baba, (2012), Happiness versus GDP, material presented at the International Conference "Right to Happiness", under the aegis of the Christian University "Dimitrie Cantemir", from 13 to 15 December 2012.

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Saint Gregory of Nyssa, About the Purpose after God, ed. W. Jaeger, vol. 8.1, p. 86.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa: Ascetical Works, trans. by Virginia W. Callahan, Washington, Catholic University Press, vol. 58. 1967, p. 134.

Stancea, I., Human rights - a concept with universal valences, University "Constantin Brâncoveanu" Piteşti, Faculty of Legal, Administrative and Communication Sciences Piteşti

http://www.strategiimanageriale.ro/images/images_site/articole/arti cle_186660ff8046cd9b994464d2f35d86 9f.pdf.

Sudre, F., (2006), European and International Human Rights Law, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, p. 185.