It is the 4th of July and we are reminded once more of our unalienable rights: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Indeed, the third right, Happiness seems to epitomize the gist of American life. How it got in the Declaration of Independence is a fascinating story if we adopt the frequently made assertion that Jefferson was an Epicurean. (See, for example, among other sources the following:
http://newepicurean.com/suggested-reading/thomas-jeffersons-letter-to-william-short-october-31-1819/
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher, born in the island of Samos around 342 BCE, but came to study and then teach in Athens. He developed interesting theories about pleasure as a goal of life, death, and the role of God(s) in human lives (he believed they were indifferent and left humans alone).
Unfortunately, very little of Epicurus’s original writings survived. What we know is through third sources. However, around 50 BCE, a Roman poet Lucretius wrote a six-chapter poem dedicated to Epicurus’s ideas called De Rerum Natura or On the Nature of Things. This poem did not fare well in the centuries that followed the establishment of Christianity as the only official religion of the Roman Empire. The main reason was the irreligious ideas of Epicurus (whom we can classify as a Deist) that seem to challenge the notion of a personal God espoused by Christian faith. Furthermore, in order to discredit Epicurus, during the Middle Ages, writers interpreted Epicurus’s idea of attaining pleasure as a purely hedonistic pursuit totally inconsistent with the anti-materialistic and austere lifestyle advocated by the Church. As a result, De Rerum Natura of Lucretius and by extension the ideas of Epicurus were eclipsed from western thought.
However, by some sort of divine irony, Poggio Bracciolini, a secretary of Popes, found himself unemployed and did what his hobby dictated him to do: hunt for ancient manuscripts in the monasteries of Europe that in those days happened to be repositories of ancient writings. Finally, in 1417, Poggio found a copy of Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura in the Abby of Fulda in Germany of which he had made a number of copies. Thus, incredibly, Lucretius and Epicurus were published again after many centuries in complete obscurity. Nonetheless, the enduring hostility of the Church toward Epicurean philosophy did not allow this poem to become immediately influential. As we read in The Swerve of Stephen Greenblatt (from which the details above come) it took a long period before the true message of Epicurus was restored and the Western world regained an appreciation for pleasure as a venerable goal of life. Far from espousing cheap hedonism, Epicurus taught that humans should seek happiness through a disciplined life that did not equate pleasure with the development of unnecessary wants and their insatiable satisfaction. Humans should also try to minimize pain. Certainly, wanting more and more was one way to set up oneself for pain as many of the wants would go unmet.
By Jefferson’s times, Lucretius and Epicurus were already part of the Western Canon. Indeed, Jefferson owned several copies of On the Nature of Things. Besides, Jefferson, like many other founding fathers, was a Deist, meaning he did not believe in a personal God that intervenes positively or negatively in the lives of humans. These facts accord well with the assertion that Jefferson was an Epicurean.
It is not difficult, therefore, to see why “… the pursuit of Happiness” made it into the Declaration of Independence, since Jefferson was its principal writer. In addition to his personal beliefs in favor of Epicureanism, there is also evidence that Jefferson was influenced by John Locke in adding “the pursuit of Happiness.”
What is fascinating in all this is the story of the lost and found poem of a Roman poet, Lucretius, who preserved the ideas of an ancient Greek philosopher whose ideas would have otherwise been lost forever. And, of course, what made this eventually possible is the personal goal of a Papal secretary who loved to discover lost works of the ancient sages. History is full of happy coincidences and swerves that enrich our lives and help us understand ourselves so that …. Happiness is not an elusive dream.
So this the 4th of July, let’s raise our glasses to cheer Epicurus, Lucretius, Poggio, and Jefferson. And, of course, cheers to the rest of the Founding Fathers and the anonymous American patriots that won the war of independence, thus preserving for us its Declaration as a living document, so we can write stories like this one.
Happy 4th of July
George
Let's Reason 
Thanks, George, for the interesting insights into how “the pursuit of happiness” came to be enshrined in American life and lore. In India where I grew up and Hinduism my faith, the pursuit of happiness was not an ideal aspiration- indeed the focus was on self-realization and one’s Dharma. Of course the various stages (Ashrams) of an individual life had different objectives to aspire to and seek.
So migrating to the US at the “Grahastrashram” or householder phase of my life, I found the “pursuit of happiness ” a valid and intriguing motivator. As I transit into the “Sanyasashram” phase of my existence, I find myself growing more inward directed, more naturally feeling detached from belongings and more drawn towards meaning and significance of life’s journey.
Keep on with recording your musings and analysis in your blog. I look forward to reading and learning more. Peace, my friend, I wish you.
Ram..
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