The Pursuit of Happiness

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a slogan that we use a lot – especially around July 4th – but what exactly does it mean? Why do we have a right to "pursue happiness"? Timothy Sandefur, Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, explains everything you need to know about the pursuit of happiness in this Foundations of Freedom video. Jump to different chapters in the video using the timestamps below: 00:00 – Intro 00:24 – Where does the phrase come from? 01:35 – Philosophers on what it means to pursue happiness 02:27 – Differences between Aristotle and Epicurus 03:21 – The Christian church responds to the pursuit of happiness 04:22 – The pursuit of happiness during the Renaissance and Enlightenment 05:13 – America's founding fathers on the pursuit of happiness 05:57 – What about economic freedom? 07:23 – The British government and mercantilism 08:13 – Changing tides at the beginning of the 17th century 8:58 – The pursuit of happiness today