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Sunday 11 November 2018

The Pursuit of Happiness and the US constitution



The fool and hedonist pursues pleasure under the impression that he is pursuing happiness. The wise know that happiness can only be pursued obliquely.

We are left to discover good and evil ways of pursuing pleasure. The quickest way to ensure a minimum of morality in members of society is to have a moral system setting out what must and must not be done.  The overwhelming majority of people are not philosophers capable of rationally and morally deciding correctly what is good or evil.

If you asked a Jew, Christian or Muslim what is good or evil, he would say that evil is what God forbids in scripture. That is the only objective standard required, for all practical purposes.

The US constitution could perhaps be improved by substituting the "happiness" that is the pursuit of the American with "justice". That would improve his character, his society and the world around him.

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