DAY 190 - IMMANUEL KANT AND HAPPINESS

Day 190

Immanuel Kant  was a German Prussian philosopher who lived from 1724 to 1804.   He had a major impact on the Romantic and Idealist philosophies of the 19th Century, and is considered being one of history's most influential Western thinkers.

According to Immanuel Kant, it is impossible to define what happiness is because it is somewhat an ideal of the imagination.  He believed that although happiness could be defined as being a feeling of perfect bliss, no one can know what perfect bliss is, or even what will bring happiness, until the experience takes place.  Therefore, happiness is both indefinite and empirical (based on experience).

Furthermore, if happiness is an ideal of the imagination, how can we use reason to determine what means to take in order to attain it.  For Kant, reason can help avoid pain and unhappiness, but avoiding unhappiness doesn’t mean being happy.

Instead of searching for happiness, Kant thought that people should seek the moral law constructed by reason.  We should focus on trying to lead virtuous lives and not worry about happiness. Kant believed this to be the categorical imperative.  For him, those who perform duties for personal interest are only seemingly moral.  And since the pursuit of happiness is based on personal interest, it cannot be moral.  True happiness can only be found in the moral act and not in the mere satisfaction of personal desire.

  “When a thoughtful human being has overcome incentives to vice and is aware of having done his bitter duty, he finds himself in a state that could be called happiness, a state of contentment and peace of mind in which virtue is its own reward.”

Immanuel Kant