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Full Idea
For an utmost end, in which the ancient philosophers have placed felicity, there is no such thing in this world, nor way to it: for while we live, we have desires, and desire presupposeth a further end.
Clarification
'Felicity' is happiness
Gist of Idea
Life has no end (not even happiness), because we have desires, which presuppose a further end
Source
Thomas Hobbes (Human Nature [1640], Ch.VII.6)
Book Ref
'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.5
A Reaction
Kant's definition of happiness (Idea 1452) seems to be the underlying idea, and hence with the same implication (of impossibility). However, an alcoholic locked in a brewery would seem to have all that Hobbes requires for happiness.
Related Idea
Idea 1452 Happiness is the condition of a rational being for whom everything goes as they wish [Kant]
| 2681 | Aristotle is unsure about eudaimonia because he is unsure what people are [Nagel on Aristotle] |
| 5132 | Goods like pleasure are chosen partly for happiness, but happiness is chosen just for itself [Aristotle] |
| 30 | Happiness is perfect and self-sufficient, the end of all action [Aristotle] |
| 14522 | What happens to me if I obtain all my desires, and what if I fail? [Epicurus] |
| 22985 | Everyone wants happiness [Augustine] |
| 6210 | Life has no end (not even happiness), because we have desires, which presuppose a further end [Hobbes] |
| 1386 | A concern for happiness is the inevitable result of consciousness [Locke] |
| 1454 | Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness [Kant] |
| 21061 | Duty does not aim at an end, but gives rise to universal happiness as aim of the will [Kant] |
| 2891 | Only the English actually strive after happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 4500 | It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche] |
| 4558 | We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche] |
| 18307 | I want my work, not happiness! [Nietzsche] |
| 7983 | Good versus evil has been banefully reduced to happiness versus misfortune [Baudrillard] |