![]() ![]() Instead, they believed that a benevolent God must wish his creatures to be happy, and have planned the universe in such a way as to make happiness possible.Įnlighteners, however, were rarely Pollyannas. Enlighteners no longer saw the world as a vale of tears on which human beings had to endure suffering so that a tiny minority could be rewarded with happiness in heaven. This was the culmination of a century of Enlightenment thought in which eudaemonism, the belief that the attainment of happiness is the purpose of human life, became increasingly central. The preamble to the American Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and revised by Congress, declares that all men have certain ‘unalienable Rights’, including ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’.
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