Happiness for humans / Daniel C. Russell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Russell, Daniel C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Happiness--Philosophy.

Happiness.

Physical Description:

xi, 283 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

In Happiness for Humans, Daniel C. Russell takes a fresh look at happiness from a practical perspective: the perspective of someone trying to solve the wonderful problem of how to give himself a good life. From this perspective, 'happiness' is the name of a solution to that problem for practical deliberation. Russell's approach to happiness falls within a tradition that reaches back to ancient Greek and Roman philosophers-a tradition now called 'eudaimonism.' Beginning with Aristotle's seminal discussion of the role of happiness in practical reasoning, Russell asks what sort of good happiness would have to be in order to play the role in our practical economies that it actually does play. Looking at happiness from this perspective, Russell argues that happiness is a life of activity, with three main features: it is acting for the sake of ends we can live for, and living for them wisely; it is fulfilling for us, both as humans and as unique individuals; and it is inextricable from our connections with the particular persons, pursuits, and places that make us who we are. By returning to this ancient perspective on happiness, Russell finds new directions for contemporary thought about the good lives we want for ourselves. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Happiness, then and now

1 Happiness, eudaimonia, and practical reasoning 13

2 Happiness as eudaimonia 36

3 Happiness and virtuous activity 65

4 New directions from old debates 84

Part 2 Happiness then: the sufficiency debate

5 Aristotle's case against the sufficiency thesis 107

6 Socrates' case for the sufficiency thesis 135

7 Epictetus and the Stoic self 156

8 The Stoics' case for the sufficiency thesis 178

Part 3 Happiness now: rethinking the self

9 The embodied conception of the self 199

10 The embodied conception and psychological well-being 216

11 The Stoics' case against the embodied conception 232.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [258]-269) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780199583683

0199583684

OCLC:

785869611