Hannah Arendt and the concept of public happiness

on public freedom to act together

Abstract

This article is a reflection on the concept of public happiness in Hannah Arendt. The terminology itself is controversial when one starts from the categories of political thought, influenced since Plato, that the ultimate end of politics and action is beyond the public domain. Arendt proposes, however, that the purposes of government and politics would be the promotion of society's happiness, which is understood as public happiness. But the question still remains: what does public happiness mean for the author? For the development of this concept, Arendt refers as much to the American Revolution - and its desire to make everyone part of the common government - as to the French Revolution - and its idea of freedom and the possibility of participating in political affairs. The research used a bibliographic review of Arendt's works, especially the texts Ação e a busca da felicidade and On revolution and its commentators. In the end, it was inferred that a notion of public happiness proposed by Arendt deals with the happiness of participating in political issues, the possibility of meeting, the joy of speech, the possibility of persuading and being persuaded, in short, public happiness is the freedom to act in set.