Ser feliz no exercitar: Agostinho, Hadot e os exercícios espirituais

Abstract

Happiness and the way of life that leads man to this state is always a topic of discussion and investigation in the present and in the most ancient cultural expressions of humanity. The concern that the theme arouses affects everyone, as the subject concerns the completeness that the individual wants to have and the fulfillment that one intends to have in life, so there are questions that are always under debate such as: What is happiness? How can we be happy? Is it possible to be happy? How can we enjoy a happy life? In this way, the present article aims to investigate the theme of happiness in De beata vita, one of the oldest works by the philosopher Augustine composed during his Christianae vitae otium in Cassicíaco, from the conception of Spiritual Exercises in Pierre Hadot, worrying about if in presenting the possession of the happy life as a path of exercises of formation of the spirit that can be developed by all who dedicate themselves to the Augustinian ideal of happiness.