Skip to main content

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

Preferred term

pursuit of happiness  

Definition

  • The term pursuit of happiness, which occurs in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, has attracted the attention of countless scholars over the past two centuries. The phrase differs from the triad of rights put forward by John Locke in his Two Treatises of Government (1690), where he defended the rights of Englishmen to their “Life, Liberty, and Estates.” Whigs had traditionally included estates or property as an essential element of the liberties of Englishmen, which was classified among the natural rights that all men possessed. [Source: The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism; Pursuit of Happiness]

Broader concept

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/pursuit_of_happiness

Download this concept: