It shows that the answers are multiple. This book has this advantage: that of giving an overview of what is happiness through the centuries. To the ancients, it is within the contemplation of the surrounding world, the ideal of perfection. For Modern, it rather represents a material welfare (Nietzsche) or psychological (Freud) .For the author, it would seem that happiness comes from victory on the issue of Hi: an ability to overcome fears of death in the famous phrase of Montaigne "philosophize is to learn to die." As for Christians, happiness is for them an outcome that is found in contemplation and submission to a form of transcendence represented by God.
This journey through the ages is very interesting. However, I found two flaws in this book:
-the portion of St Thomas seemed a bit confused. Luc Ferry shows how this Christian tried to give a philosophical dimension to religious thought. The development is arduous, repetitive and somewhat enlightening.
-having read "Learning to Live" (published in 2006) by the same author before the book ("What is a successful life?", published in 2002) I saw a number of repetitions. Luc Ferry sometimes uses the same extracts in both books and identical explanations (a perfect copy and paste). I think of the speech Naipaul and his commentary or Pascal extracts. I find this quite annoying process. We wait for each book an absolutely new path.
I therefore cautions readers to read the two following (which I did!), Even if "What is a successful life?" deepens more Nietzschean thought and offers a beautiful development with Freud convincing explanation of what the psychoanalyst for fixation and regression.
Luc Ferry, however, keeps this rare quality among philosophers a particularly clear style, and supported a coherent and accessible to all paths. This humility and simplicity are very pleasant.
