What Is This Thing Called Happiness?

by Feldman, Fred

• ISBN13: 9780199571178
• ISBN10: 0199571171
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

According to an ancient and still popular view -- sometimes known as 'eudaimonism' -- a person's well-being, or quality of life, is ultimately determined by his or her level of happiness. According to this view, the happier a person is, the better off he is. The doctrine is controversial in part because the nature of happiness is controversial. InWhat Is This Thing Called Happiness?Fred Feldman presents a study of the nature and value of happiness. Part One contains critical discussions of the main philosophical and psychological theories of happiness. Feldman presents arguments designed to show that each of these theories is problematic. Part Two contains his presentation and defense of his own theory of happiness, which is a form of attitudinal hedonism. On this view, a person's level of happiness may be identified with the extent to which he or she takes pleasure in things. Feldman shows that if we understand happiness as he proposes, it becomes reasonable to suppose that a person's well-being is determined by his or her level of happiness. This view has important implications not only for moral philosophy, but also for the emerging field of hedonic psychology. Part Three contains discussions of some interactions between the proposed theory of happiness and empirical research into happiness.

Author Biography

Fred Feldman has been a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 1969.

Table of Contents

Some Puzzles about Happiness	p. 1
The Smile-Shaped Curve of Happiness	p. 1
Troubles about Happiness	p. 5
Why Worry about Happiness?	p. 12
What's in This Book	p. 15
Some Things That Happiness Isn't
Sensory Hedonism about Happiness	p. 23
Bentham, Mill, and Sidgwick on Happiness	p. 23
Haybron on Hedonism about Happiness	p. 27
Why Hedonism is False	p. 32
Kahneman's "Objective Happiness"	p. 37
Kahneman and "Instant Utility"	p. 37
The Theory of Objective Happiness	p. 43
The Intended Role of Objective Happiness	p. 44
Problems with Kahneman's Theory	p. 46
Subjective Local Preferentism about Happiness	p. 53
Forms of Preferentism	p. 53
Conceptual Background	p. 55
Davis's Theory of Happiness	p. 58
Problems for Davis's Form of Local Preferentism	p. 63
A Paradox for Preferentism?	p. 67
Whole Life Satisfaction Concepts of Happiness	p. 70
A Surprising Book Title	p. 70
Whole Life Satisfaction Theories of Happiness	p. 72
Two Preliminary Problems	p. 74
Some Distinctions and a Multitude of Concepts	p. 77
Actualism and Hypotheticalism	p. 81
Conclusion	p. 89
Happiness and Time: More Nails in the Coffin of Whole Life Satisfactionism	p. 91
Happiness =df. Whatever the Happiness Test Measures	p. 98
What Happiness Is
What is This Thing Called Happiness?	p. 107
Where We Stand	p. 107
A Crucial Distinction	p. 109
Happiness at a Time, During an Interval, in a Domain, and in a Life	p. 118
Wendell, Dolores, and the New Mother	p. 124
The Meaning(s) of 'Happy'	p. 127
Some Claims of Ambiguity	p. 127
Quine on Ambiguity	p. 129
Is 'Happy' Ambiguous?	p. 131
Does 'Happy' Have Any of the Suggested Senses?	p. 132
The Meaning of 'Happy'	p. 135
Attitudinal Hedonism about Happiness	p. 137
The Problem of Objectless Moods	p. 137
"The Missing Element"	p. 143
In Praise of Shallow Happiness	p. 147
Brett the Drag Racer	p. 150
Susan the Pessimistic Student	p. 151
Lois and the Dinosaurs	p. 153
Tammy	p. 154
Tristan and Bruce	p. 155
The Philosopher	p. 157
Summary	p. 159
Eudaimonism	p. 160
"Happiness is The Good"	p. 160
Welfare, Well-Being, Quality of Life	p. 160
Eudaimonism and Survival Strategies	p. 170
The Fragmentation of Happiness	p. 173
Five Grades of Demonic Possession	p. 181
The Problem of Inauthentic Happiness	p. 188
The Objection from Non-autonomous Values	p. 188
Sumner on Authenticity	p. 190
Problems for Sumner's Solution	p. 191
Relevance to My Form of Eudaimonism	p. 194
Disgusting Happiness	p. 203
A Problem for Eudaimonism of all Forms	p. 203
Avoiding Controversy	p. 210
Our Authority over Our Own Happiness	p. 216
Epistemic Authority	p. 216
Controlling Authority over Happiness	p. 221
Implications for the Empirical Study of Happiness
Measuring Happiness	p. 231
Why Measure?	p. 231
Satisfaction with Life and Its Domains	p. 233
A Better Way to Measure Happiness	p. 240
Review of Cases	p. 244
Methodological Comments	p. 248
Empirical Research; Philosophical Conclusions	p. 253
Layard on the Reality of Happiness	p. 254
The "Objective Reality" of Happiness	p. 259
Happiness as a Natural Kind	p. 263
Concluding Warnings, Clarifications, Disclaimers	p. 268
The Central Points of the Project as a Whole	p. 270
Bibliography	p. 274
Index	p. 281
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