Should we pursue our own happiness?

Yesterday's discussion in Philosophy was very good and thought-provoking. We discussed, in the context of Mill, Kant, Aquinas, Aristotle and Plato whether or not humans should, above all, pursue their highest happiness. Some people argued, in conjunction with Kant, that duty should be our highest motive. Others argued that happiness should be. Dr. Mitchell posed a very interesting question: suppose you were alone by a train tracks. A train was rapidly approaching, and there was a baby laying on the tracks. Will you save the baby, if everyone else thinks you committed suicide and the baby can't tell about how you saved its life? We then discussed, yes, if you do this, are you doing it out of a motivation of your own happiness, or out of a sense of duty. Interesting arguments were presented on either side.

I lean toward the Aristotelian viewpoint that pursuing your own happines is, in fact, a good thing. To put it in a Christian perspective, glorifying God and enjoying Him don't have to be put at odds. We glorify God because we enjoy Him, not, as it was proposed in class by Mr. Carver simply to glorify Him with enjoyment as a side product.

I was evaluating this perspective in class, however. I don't want to hold to something just for the sake of holding to it.

Well I walked into Biology Lab after Philosophy class, and sat down to read some Kagan before class started. I opened up Kagan to the marker I put in to the book during spring break - a quote by Lewis.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has krept in from Kant and the stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Reading this quote after having read Kant put it in an entirely new light. C.S. Lewis is most definitely not a Kantian. Yes, we should desire our own good, because our own good is found in glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.