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Arts & Letters

Should We Pursue Happiness?

Vincent Kavaloski reviews both Tolstoy’s insights and his oversight.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
(United States Declaration of Independence, 1776)

Do we all pursue happiness? Should we? And what would it even mean? Is happiness something that can be chased and sometimes captured? What does it mean to pursue happiness? The phrase ‘the pursuit of happiness’ (as featured for example in the U.S. Declaration of Independence) contains at least two major assumptions: (1) that happiness lies outside of us, out there in the world; and (2) it is elusive, requiring intention and effort to capture it. Are those accurate assumptions?

The Paradox of Personal Happiness

The novels of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) explore these assumptions in great and instructive depth. His books are filled with characters in feverish pursuit of happiness in many different ways.

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