From Negation To Affirmation

Happiness is the marginal topic in Kant’s philosophy. People always tend to have a stereotype about Kant’s view of it. that he took happiness as obstacles of moral and cleared it thoroughly. But in fact, this is not a simple clearance. Kant divided happiness into three levels and negated them. The negation can also be divided into two levels, the external negation and the internal. In the external negation, the happiness of empirical agreeableness, one’s own happiness and bliss are suspended separately, in order to insure the purity of moral. In the internal negation, the concept of happiness itself grows gradually from the lowest level to the highest level. Kant’s negation of happiness is the emplacement of itself, thus happiness and moral are free from the tight bind of each other. Happiness need to be neutral in front of moral, and there is a vast space for moral neutrality. Happiness and moral do not combine directly, but meet each other in good and the highest good. Here comes the affirmation of happiness. It concerns freedom, ideal and purpose. In this article, by analyzing some texts of Kant, the concept of happiness will be clarified, the pattern of negation of happiness will be described, and the affirmation of happiness will be probed.