According to Philo Judaeus, how can people achieve perfect happiness?

According to the philosophy of Philo Judaeus, perfect happiness is not something that can be achieved solely through human effort or the pursuit of virtue. Instead, he maintained that it is attained only through the grace of God.1

While Philo emphasized the importance of a self-disciplined life and the practice of virtues—such as religious faith, humanity, and repentance—he viewed these as distinct from the ultimate state of happiness. His broader philosophical framework often involved a dualistic view of the body as a "prison house" for the soul, and he advocated for a mystic experience, which he termed "sober intoxication," to help lead the individual out of the material world and toward the eternal. Ultimately, however, he placed this direct experience of God and the resulting state of perfection under the domain of divine grace rather than human achievement.1