In Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, “happiness” is defined as “contemptment with one’s state” (p.527). Satisfaction is a necessary condition for a person to be happy, according to Kant. Happiness is also categorized as an “inclination” which one will naturally pursue throughout their lives. This leads Kant to classify happiness as also being “an Ideal, not of reason, but of imagination-an Ideal resting merely on empirical grounds.” To expand on how happiness is an ideal Kant describes it as being such an “indeterminate a concept that although every man wants to attain happiness, he can never say definitely and in unison with himself what it really is that he wants and wills” (p.532).
In The Principles of Morals and Legislation Jeremy Benthem groups “benefit, advantage, pleasure, [and] good” (p.14) to be synonymous with happiness. Benthem connects happiness with pleasure throughout his work as he develops The Principle of Utility, this is similar to Kant’s view of happiness as a natural inclination or desire. Unlike Kant, Benthem views happiness as something that is readily obtainable through his repetition of how an action can augment or “diminish the happiness of the party” (p.14) thus implying that there are existent actions directly leading to happiness.
Works Cited
Bentham, Jeremy. McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, 1781st ed., Kitchener: Batoche Books, 2000, pp. 14–31, https://historyofeconomicthought.mcmaster.ca/bentham/index.html. Accessed 2024.
Kant, Immanuel, and H.J. Paton. “B. Kantian Ethics.” Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2016, pp. 527–542.
