Hobbes on desire and happiness

International audienceHobbes defines happiness as “a general inclination of all mankind”. The Hobbesian individual, preoccupied with attaining lasting possession of his variable object of desire, is thus caught up in an unending process. Whereas happiness for the ancient philosophers came of calm, serene enjoyment of the sovereign good, in Hobbes’ understanding it is rife with the anxiety that affects the desires of a man haunted by consciousness of his mortality. The loss of the idea of sovereign good and the correlative development of utilitarian thinking opened the way for identifying the individual’s quest for happiness with a quest for power. In a singular reversal of perspectives, Hobbes explains that what fuels our quest for felicity is perpetual preoccupation with acquiring goods and power, a purely cumulative process that knows nothing of final ends, the supreme good or any desire to attain wisdom. The present paper deals with this new perspective still at the foundation of modern economics, and studies more particularly the link it establishes between desires and happiness