Happiness is an achievement brought about by man’s inner
productiveness, and not a gift from the gods. Happiness and joy are not the
satisfaction of a need springing from a physiological or a psychological lack;
they are not the relief from tensions but the accompaniment of all
productive activity, in thought and feeling, and action. Happiness is an
indication that man has found the answer to the problem of human existence: the
productive realization of his potentialities and thus, simultaneously, being
one with the world and preserving the integrity of his self. In spending his
energy productively he increases his powers and “burns without being consumed.”
Happiness is the criterion of excellence in the art of
living, of virtue in the meaning it has in humanistic ethics. Happiness is
often considered the logical opposite of grief and pain. Physical or mental
suffering is part of human existence and to experience them is unavoidable. To
spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total
detachment, which excluded the ability to experience happiness. The opposite
of happiness thus is not grief or pain but depression, which results from inner
sterility and unproductiveness.
Happiness is proof of partial or total success in the “art
of living.” Happiness is man’s greatest achievement; it is the response of his
total personality to a productive orientation toward himself and the world
outside. Humanistic ethics may very well postulate happiness and joy as its
chief virtues, but in doing so it does not demand the easiest but the most difficult task
of man, the full development of his productiveness.
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