New parents are sometimes asked whimsically what they want for their children when they grow up. The safest reply, and most common one today, is: “I just want them to be happy.” Another possible reply, often unspoken but certainly part of most parents’ thoughts about their children’s future, might be: “I just want them to be good.”
In such a way, parents routinely join an age-old debate about the human condition: Should striving for happiness be a goal in itself or does moral virtue trump personal contentment? If we’re good, will happiness follow? And what does it mean to be happy, anyway?
To read more, please follow this link.
