The transition to happiness according to Aristotle, Epicurus, Epictetus, Sextus Empiricus, Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint omas Aquinas: A decolonial analysis

Abstract

The notion of happiness comes to the mind and heart of man as a desirable essence, a required state that confers some stable form of contentment and peace; but where relationships and moral and ethical implications are also built. The purpose of this study was to explore the worldview around happiness in ancient ethics through authors such as Aristotle, in Hellenistic-Roman ethics with authors such as Epicurus, Epictetus and Sextus Empiricus; and in medieval ethics with Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas. Through the support and application of the critical analytical method (Dussel, 2011, Scannone, 2009), the polysemic meaning of happiness was, in its entirety of meaning, revised as the ultimate goal of the human being, a characteristic related to all these philosophies, for later be contrasted with the otherness of the path that needs to be followed in the search for such an aspired condition. The analytical meeting of these specific thinkers responds, in particular, to a historical evolution on the decisive influence that the Hellenistic-Roman philosophers had on Saint Augustine and, on Saint Thomas, the ethics of the virtues of Aristotle. It is concluded that between the Greco-Roman philosophers and the medieval ethical paradigm there is a revealing transition regarding the conception of happiness: From the moral practice of virtues, passing through hedonism and ataraxia, until landing in the moral ideology of Christianity in in which happiness becomes a loving faith towards God, in his quality of Good and Supreme Truth.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6712488

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