Hope Is Happiness

After going through the essentials of the most relevant philosophical positions on happiness offered by the history of thought, the author emphatically defends Miguel de Unamuno’s position. It is shown indeed how a Unamunian version of Platonism approaches truth very successfully, just in relevant points where conflicting theories fail in various senses. The critical descriptions are devoted mainly to Aristotelianism and Stoicism, while Epicureanism is valued in an unusual way. Post-Shoah thought obliges, as it is shown later, to deepen the understanding of hope that had been glimpsed in existential philosophy, especially in Kierkegaard and in Unamuno.