Thursday, March 8, 2012

Contentment vs Happiness

February passed in a whirlwind and it is well into Lent. I have been studying philosophical errors this semester and it is amazing how so much that is based on bad reasoning or lack of logic have become pillars of what "everyone knows".

We have started looking at happiness, as discussed by St. Thomas Aquinas vs contentment, which is what passes for happy in too many modern philosophical stances. The difference, happiness is not something we know we have achieved until we reach the end of our life. Then we will know if we are happy. Those in between moments from birth to death, no matter how sweet, are contentment. We can rest in that moment, but then we go on to the next contentment.

Too often, temporary moments, sweet though they may be, are given the name happy. No wonder there is so much dis-content.

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