Rousseau and the Situation of Being Happy

Abstract

In this text, I develop the idea that in the work of Jean Jacques Rousseau there are two definitions of happiness: one that is called private, which is a satisfying, profoundly subjective experience—that only those who live it can define exactly how it is—which is linked to personal motivations and whose methods to achieve it are varied and chosen by each person. Another, which is called public and deals with the ability of political associations to link individuals through mechanisms that strengthen or suture the different social affiliations that are necessary for people to live well. Rousseau calls this last process the situation of being happy. To explain all of the above, I analyze the characteristics of modern happiness and Rousseau’s response to that idea of happiness; I also establish how, from the study of the different causes of discomfort, he proposes to understand happiness in a private dimension and in a public dimension; and finally, I argue that in his work he raises three grievances caused by modern society that must be resolved by political communities so that all people are in a “situation of being happy”: order, security, and appreciation.