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Citizenship vs the Pursuit of Happiness, Bonum Commune vs Private Property

A Modern Contracdiction and its Medieval Root

Florida International University

One of the two cultural principles of our civilisation, the public culture of citizenship deriving from Antiquity, asks individuals to serve the common good; the other, the pursuit of happiness, ends in the indi vidual's enjoyment ofh is private property. It derives from the security of individual property right in medieval Europe, where lordships are held as property. The forms of public culture include metaphysical philosophy, theology, and science; the pursuit of happiness evokes a culture of individuality valorised in chivalry, whose aristocratic values of prowss, erotic enjoyment, and adventure continue to ani mate our non-aristocratic world. The nation-state history of the modern world belongs to the culture of citizenship; the post-modern culture of individuality generates varieties of social history and may, in its elitist dimension, revive humanistic history as literature.

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