The pursuit of happiness in the founding era : an intellectual history / Carli N. Conklin.

"Scholars have long debated the meaning of happiness, yet have tended to define it narrowly, missing its larger context. They have focused on a single intellectual tradition, most commonly the political philosophy of Locke, and on the use of the term within a single text, the Declaration of Independence. Carli Conklin considers happiness across a variety of intellectual traditions, and focuses on its usage in two key legal texts of the Founding Era: Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, as well as the Declaration. In so doing, she makes several contributions to the fields of early American intellectual and legal history"--

"This work is an intellectual history of the pursuit of happiness. Scholars have long debated the meaning of the term, yet have tended to define it too narrowly, missing its larger context. They have focused on a single intellectual tradition, most commonly the political philosophy of Locke, and on the use of the term within a single text, the Declaration of Independence. The present work considers the term across a variety of intellectual traditions, and focuses on its usage in two key legal texts of the Founding Era: Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England as well as the Declaration. In so doing, it makes several contributions to the fields of early American intellectual and legal history"--

Includes bibliographies and index.

Part I: The Pursuit of Happiness in Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. Placement and Purpose: A New Science of Jurisprudence -- An Enlightenment Epistemology: Anglican Theology and Scottish Common Sense Philosophy -- Improvement and Perfection of the Common Law: History and Architecture -- Part II: The Pursuit of Happiness in the Declaration of Independence. Textual Context: Placement, Drafting, and Structure -- "No New Ideas": Four Strands of Founding Era Thought -- Intermingling of the Four Strands -- Convergence of the Four Strands: The Pursuit of Happiness -- Part III: The Pursuit of Happiness: A Private Right and a Public Duty. A Single Definition with Dual Applications -- Improvement and Perfection from the Commentaries Forward -- Conclusion -- Appendices. I. Historiography of William Blackstone and the Commentaries -- II. Historiography of the Pursuit of Happiness in the Declaration of Independence -- III. Blackstone's Commentaries, Introduction, Section the Second, Of the Nature of Laws in General, pp. 38-44 -- IV. Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson's, John Adams's, and Benjamin Franklin's Edits Included, as Reconstructed by Carl Becker -- V. The Declaration of Independence with Edits by the Continental Congress Marked, as Reconstructed by Carl Becker -- VI. The Declaration of Independence, a Transcript from the National Archives.

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