The Never Ending Story: Mankinds Quest for Happiness

2577 Words11 Pages
Todd Chapman
Humanities
Final Paper
6/26/2013

The Never Ending Story: Mankind’s Quest for Happiness

Happiness is one of the most universal desires of mankind, sought after by every living person throughout history. Philosophers from every era have attempted not only to define happiness, but also to direct us towards the best path to achieving it. Artists, musicians and authors have frequently addressed this theme, portraying people at all levels of society either finding or losing happiness in their lives. Sometimes artists not only display the themes of happiness, but attempt to inspire the feeling of happiness through the medium itself, manipulating the emotions of the observer, or provoking feelings of nostalgia, warmth, and love. Through a study of the arts we can see that happiness is not only a state of being, caused by achieving success in life, but also a state of mind that can be achieved no matter what a person’s circumstances may be.
Since ancient times, philosophers have agreed that happiness is an especially important goal for all mankind. It could be considered as the only goal that is an end unto itself. If one achieves wealth, love, power, or any other think one may reach for in life, there is still no guarantee that one will be happy. If one is able to achieve happiness, however, what would then be left to desire? As universal as this goal may be, however, there is no agreement on what exactly causes happiness, how it is achieved or even what it is. Our libraries and websites are filled with books about finding happiness, but no dictionary can explain exactly what happiness is. No road map exists that can point the way to happiness. No mathematician can give us the formula which we could use to solve the problem. No scientist can produce an elixir of happiness. Still, the search goes on for the answers, because, as our textbook for this

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