Nicholas P White

A Brief History of Happiness

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Do we really know what happiness is? Should happiness play such a dominant role in shaping and orienting our lives? And how can we deal with conflicts between the various things that make us happy? In this brief history of happiness, philosopher Nicholas White reviews 2,500 years of attempts to answer such questions. White considers the ways in which major thinkers from antiquity to the present day have treated happiness: from Plato's notion of the harmony of the soul and Aristotle's account of well-being or flourishing as the aim of an ethical life, to Aquinas' idea of the vision of the divine essence, Bentham's hedonistic calculus, and the modern-day decision-theoretic notion of preference. We also encounter skepticism about the very idea of a complete and consistent concept of happiness in the writings of Nietzsche and Freud. Throughout, White relates questions about happiness to central concerns in ethics and practical philosophy.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley
• Revised edition
• Seitenzahl: 208
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Januar 2006
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 11mm
• Gewicht: 266g
• ISBN-13: 9781405115209
• ISBN-10: 1405115203
• Artikelnr.: 22459569

Autorenporträt

Nicholas P. White is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface vii

1 Introducing the Concept 1

2 Conflicts, Perspectives, and the Identification of Happiness 6

3 Pleasure, Hedonism, and the Measurement of Happiness 41

4 Happiness as Structure and Harmony 75

5 Morality, Happiness, and Conflict 116

6 Happiness, Fact, and Value 142

7 Doing without the Concept 162

Glossary and List of Historical Figures 175

Bibliography 181

Index 187

Rezensionen

"White takes his readers on [a] journey, aiming to reach anappreciation of the nature of happiness. He splendidly suceeds inmaking the journey as fascinating as it deserves to be. White hasproduced a unique, thoughtful work that provides a meaningfulexcursion through our conceptions of happiness. Readers will beleft with a gift of greater insight into both the triumphs andlimitations of our efforts to understand ourselves."PsycCRITIQUES

"A valuable aid to the flourishing literature on happiness andits history."
Ethics

"Nicholas White offers a brisk, informative, and readableaccount of various attempts, throughout the Western philosophicaltradition, to articulate the meaning of that elusive term'happiness.'" Review of Metaphysics