A brief history of happiness /
White, Nicholas P., 1942-
A brief history of happiness / Nicholas White. - Malden, MA ; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2006. - 1 online resource (x, 194 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-186) and index.
Introducing the subject -- Conflicts, perspectives, and the identification of happiness -- Pleasure, hedonism, and the measurement of happiness -- Happiness as structure and harmony -- Morality, happiness, and conflict -- Happiness, fact, and value -- Doing without the concept.
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.
9780470690888 0470690887 1405153121 9781405153126 140511519X 9781405115193 1405115203 9781405115209 128028630X 9781280286308
10.1002/9780470690888 doi
10.1002/9780470690888 Wiley InterScience http://www3.interscience.wiley.com 19FB6A0A-B20D-4020-96E8-EDB019BC3C03 OverDrive, Inc. http://www.overdrive.com
Happiness--History.
Bonheur--Histoire.
PHILOSOPHY--Social.
PHILOSOPHY--Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
Happiness.
Electronic books.
History.
BJ1481 / .W65 2006eb
170
A brief history of happiness / Nicholas White. - Malden, MA ; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2006. - 1 online resource (x, 194 pages)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-186) and index.
Introducing the subject -- Conflicts, perspectives, and the identification of happiness -- Pleasure, hedonism, and the measurement of happiness -- Happiness as structure and harmony -- Morality, happiness, and conflict -- Happiness, fact, and value -- Doing without the concept.
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.
9780470690888 0470690887 1405153121 9781405153126 140511519X 9781405115193 1405115203 9781405115209 128028630X 9781280286308
10.1002/9780470690888 doi
10.1002/9780470690888 Wiley InterScience http://www3.interscience.wiley.com 19FB6A0A-B20D-4020-96E8-EDB019BC3C03 OverDrive, Inc. http://www.overdrive.com
Happiness--History.
Bonheur--Histoire.
PHILOSOPHY--Social.
PHILOSOPHY--Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
Happiness.
Electronic books.
History.
BJ1481 / .W65 2006eb
170