The significance of Ricoeur’s notions of happiness, unhappiness and chance for contemporary philosophy of culture and religion

Against the current tendency to aim at increasing one’s happiness, this study argues for relating happiness, unhappiness and chance. The aim of this study is threefold. First, to indicate the need for a clear and an encompassing philosophical understanding of happiness. The intention is to identify where and how the need for a more philosophical engagement is vital in relation to the different academic fields, schools of thought, trends and disciplines on happiness. Secondly, it wants to find a philosophical overarching concept of happiness in the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. The third is to investigate how this concept of happiness of Ricoeur can help us to face the problems of the predominant understandings of happiness as advocated by capitalism, consumerism, social media, technology, happiness sciences and religion. They all advocate in their unique way a kind of happiness that, for example, no longer allows one to accept unhappiness and chance. They therefore lack a complete affirmation of this life, something which is crucial for happiness as will become apparent in this study. I argue in this thesis that Ricoeur’s hermeneutical approach to happiness, as well as his dialectical philosophical method, offer an alternative for understanding happiness in a holistic and comprehensive way. Ricoeur’s dialectical thinking of happiness understands it as something we should strive for and at the same time something we simply receive without any effort, only by chance. His holistic and integrated understanding of happiness stands in sharp contrast to contemporary culture’s reductive notion of it. The thesis analyses two essays of Ricoeur and situates them in his work. They offer a unique understanding of happiness that contributes to the field of happiness studies. The study also contributes to the Ricoeur scholarship because these two essays on happiness, “Le Bonheur Hors Lieu” (Happiness is out of Bounds), and “L’optatif du bonheur” (The Optative Mood of Happiness) have not been discussed systematically in secondary work on Ricoeur’s understanding of happiness.