Right To Happiness Essay

1780 Words4 Pages

The rights to happiness can be defined, explained, and shown in many different ways and throughout many different cultures. Some believe that you have a direct, full time right to happiness regardless of what you do, others believe that you have to earn that right, and others think that you do not have a right to it at all. Our founding fathers cemented in our Declaration of Independence that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nowhere does it say that we have a direct right to happiness itself, but we can pursue it by any means necessary. I believe that we have the right to pursue it and find our own form of happiness as long as it does not interfere with other people and their journey to find happiness. We have …show more content…

You should never trade true happiness for some possible one time pleasure. Aristotle believes that even pleasure can continue onto pure happiness (Aristotle 86). C.S. Lewis tells us that when a couple has achieved their own lasting happiness, it isn’t due to some magical bond, it’s because they are good and adaptable people (C.S. Lewis 231). Aristotle continued on and said that if an action is good and noble, then since man judges these attributes well, then one in the end should be happy Aristotle (86). I believe that these statements support one another by showing how each of them can show that what starts out as pleasure, can lead into pure happiness. As such, true happiness, if you have it from what you have done or what you have gained from pleasure should never be traded for a one time stint with pleasure. Now there are some people who believe that you have the right to happiness by any means, and to harm anyone morally even if you had pure happiness and plan on trading it for …show more content…

Although our government defends our right to pursue happiness, this does not mean that they defend your right to do so while harming others. They defend your right to pursue happiness as long as it stays on the lawful path. Aristotle has shown us that even in Ancient Greece they had a standard for what they believed as happiness that is still carried on and believed to this day, The Dalai Lama has his own beliefs that still do not interfere and C.S. Lewis believes that we throw away our morals just to put one form of happiness up on a pedestal, harming others that we may love along this path. Combining all of these teachings together shows us that we can, in fact, achieve happiness without harming others as long as we help each other, and stay true to one another and believe in our own

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