Public Happiness

Public happiness is Arendt’s name for the experience of freedom found in public participation, not merely in private security or liberation from oppression. It is one of the key positive concepts in On Revolution.

Concept

On Revolution treats revolution as successful only if liberation opens a durable space for public freedom. Public happiness names the joy people discover when they act, deliberate, found, and appear before one another as political equals.

The concept depends on the action framework in The Human Condition. Public happiness is not welfare satisfaction. It belongs to action and plurality.

Place in This Wiki

This concept is adjacent rather than central to libertarian anti-statism. It cautions against defining freedom only as private noninterference. Arendt’s account is not anti-market or anti-property as such, but its center of gravity is public participation.

See Also

• On Revolution - primary source
• Hannah Arendt - author reference
• Council System - institutional form Arendt associates with recurring public freedom
• Vita Activa - action framework
• The Rise of the Social - concept that threatens to displace public freedom
• Violence vs Power - related power/action concept

Sources

• On Revolution - public happiness and revolutionary founding
• The Human Condition - action and public realm background