WHAT_DOES PURSUIT_OF_HAPPINESS_MEAN_FOR_PLATO
When I first began to investigate the idea of the “pursuit of happiness” I did not realize how far it would take me. My investigation first directed me to David Shavin’s article, Leibniz to Franklin On ‘Happiness’ (schillerinstitute.com), which reported on how Benjamin Franklin had discussed the Leibniz idea of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” a good ten years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
But subsequently, I discovered that this principle was meant to remedy the same flawed system of justice which had led to the crucifixion of Christ, to the burning of Jeanne d’Arc at the stake, and to the condemnations of Lyndon LaRouche for crimes he did not commit. That is when I realized that the “pursuit of happiness” had to involve a passionate Gethsemane moment because it implied the shock of an axiomatic change to unify mankind in the simultaneity of temporal eternity.
