 The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being (Oxford University Press 2008) Despite its title, this is really a book about happiness, and is meant to serve as a reasonably comprehensive guide to the subject. At the broadest level, the book tries to make the case for the importance of the psychology of well-being, or prudential psychology, as a field of inquiry. More narrowly, the book argues against a chief assumption of modern thought, namely the idea that individuals are highly authoritative about their own well-being: that by and large, we know our interests and make prudent choices in pursuit of them. This assumption is dubious: even considering just the psychological aspects of well-being, our interests prove to be far less transparent to us than we tend to think; moreover, we seem to have surprisingly little aptitude for assessing and pursuing our own welfare. Along the way, the book defends an emotional state account of happiness against the dominant theories, hedonistic and life satisfaction accounts. Happiness, thus understood, is a central element of well-being, which is construed in terms of the eudaimonistic ideal of self-fulfillment. The resulting picture of human flourishing occupies a middle position between Aristotelian objectivism and modern subjectivist views such as desire theories of well-being. Further particulars in this marketing screed. "Official" pages and ordering available at Oxford USA and UK/Europe or (including searchable text) Amazon USA and UK A detailed table of contents appears here The introductory chapter is posted here Reviews A brief guide to happiness and well-being Everything you wanted to know, except how to get it. Worth every penny you paid for it. For one stop shopping: Happiness, Well-Being, and the Good Life: A Primer (draft of Chapter 2, The Pursuit of Unhappiness). For something shorter, try these: What is happiness? A quick-and-dirty summary The meanings of 'happiness' How to avoid tedious verbal quibbles Theories of happiness overview Theories of well-being overview Diagram: the good life and related concepts explanatory notes Papers Published material provided for viewing according to “fair use” laws. My dissertation is available on request. The Folk Concept(s) of Happiness: Preliminary Notes A brief summary of survey results on folk intuitions about happiness and well-being. The Pursuit of Unhappiness People tend systematically to make serious errors of prediction and choice in matters of well-being. These errors are probably serious enough to cast doubt on our ability to profit, via our choices, from having arbitrarily high levels of freedom to shape our lives as we wish, contrary to the liberal optimism characteristic of much modern thought. An early and somewhat rough version of material in Chapters 11 and 12 of the book. Well-Being and Virtue A critique of perfectionist accounts of well-being, focusing on Aristotelian theories. While such views have more going for them than most critics have realized, virtue or excellence still forms no fundamental part of well-being. Seeing why illuminates interesting points about the nature of well-being. Philosophy and the Science of Subjective Well-Being A survey of philosophical work relating to empirical work on subjective well-being. Draft 1/8/07; a revised version appears in Eid and Larsen, The Science of Subjective Well-Being. On Being Happy or Unhappy My “theory of happiness” paper, defending an emotional state view. Draft 6/10/05. Published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LXXI:2 (September 2005), pp. 287-317. Do We Know How Happy We Are? We are worse than we think at introspecting and recalling affect. Draft 6/28/06; published in Nous. Life Satisfaction, Ethical Reflection, and the Science of Happiness Life satisfaction is overrated, with implications for empirical research. Draft 7/7/05; published in The Journal of Happiness Studies Happiness, the Self, and Human Flourishing Well-being consists partly in happiness. Published in Utilitas Happiness and Pleasure Hedonistic conceptions of happiness are implausible. Published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 62:3 (2001), pp. 501-528. Two Philosophical Problems in the Study of Happiness Discusses different senses of ‘happiness’, relation to empirical research, and the role of philosophy in determining the nature of happiness. Aimed mainly at empirical researchers. Published in The Journal of Happiness Studies 1:2 (2000), pp. 207-225. What Do We Want from a Theory of Happiness? Defends a methodology for philosophical work on happiness, rejecting conceptual analysis and scientific naturalism. An adequate account of happiness should be intuitively credible and answer to our practical interests in the notion. Published in Metaphilosophy, 34:3 (2003), pp. 305-329. My PhD Dissertation: Happiness and Ethical Inquiry: An Essay in the Psychology of Well-Being Contains a fair amount of material not in the other papers, though some of my views have changed since. |