Abstract
In any country, every citizen has the right to pursue happiness, and the state, as a member of the national community, has an obligation to strive for the welfare of its citizens. As such, it is the basic premise of public happiness to view happiness of individual members of the community as a subject of public interest and responsibility beyond the individual level. Such publicness or public responsibility of happiness is fundamentally based on the fact that individual citizens exist as members not isolated but related to the national community, and that individual happiness is not entirely dependent on individual abilities and resources alone but is to a certain extent influenced by public conditions. For this reason, public happiness, unlike individual-level happiness, demands that people not only maintain an appropriate level of happiness but also require everyone to be equally happy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Three basic principles include knowing of true virtue (明明德), loving people (親民), and dwelling in ultimate good (止于至善), and Article 8 is exploring nature (格物), knowing nature (致知), being faithful (誠意), being right-minded (正心), cultivating oneself (修身), controlling home (齊家), governing country (治國), and pacifying the world (平天下). Here, “pacifying the world” is understood as the same as making the world happy.
.
- 2.
Simplicity here expresses “so-bak (素樸)” in English. Originally, so (素) refers to the unpainted base, and the bak (樸) refers to the natural wood untouched with planers or knives. Therefore, simplicity(so-bak) would mean a humble and natural thing without adornment. This is contrary to excessive greed (Lao, 2007: 97). The verse of 知足者富 (Those who know what they have enough are rich) or 知足常樂 (He who knows what they have enough is always happy) can be said to be a happiness perspective that leads to simplicity (Yao, 2018).
References
Bentham, J. (1789). An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation. Printed for T. Payne and son.
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 917–927.
Bruni, L., & Zamagni, S. (2007). Civil economy: Efficiency, equity, public happiness. Peter Lang.
Choi, H. (2006). Development administration. Shinwon Culture Co. (Korean).
Choi, I. (2018). Good life. Book21 (Korean).
Diener, E., & Emmons, R. A. (1985). The independence of positive and negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47(5), 1105–1117.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.
Diener, E., Sandvik, E., & Pavot, W. (1991). Happiness is the frequency, not the intensity, of positive versus negative affect. In F. Strack, M. Argyle, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Subjective well-being: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 213–231). Pergamon Press.
Diener, E., Ng, W., Harter, J., & Arora, R. (2010). Wealth and happiness across the world: Material prosperity predicts life evaluation, whereas psychosocial prosperity predicts positive feeling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1), 52–61.
Han, Y. (2000). The theory development administration. Asian Culture Publishing (Korean).
Herzberg, F., Mauser, B., & Snyderman, B. (1959). The motivation to work. Wiley.
Lao, T. (2007). Lao Tzu (G. S. Lee, Trans. (2007)). Publisher Gil (Korean).
OECD. (2013). OECD guidelines on measuring subjective well-being. OECD Publishing.
Veenhoven, R. (2015). The overall satisfaction with life: Subjective approaches (1). In W. Glatzer, L. Camfield, V. Møller, & M. Rojas (Eds.), Global handbook of quality of life (pp. 207–238). Springer.
Yao, K. (2018). Lecture on Lao Tzu (S. H. Son, Trans. (2010)). Kimyoungsa (Korean).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lee (2022). Epilogue. In: Public Happiness. Community Quality-of-Life and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89643-0_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89643-0_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89642-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-89643-0
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)