Christine Vitrano - The Nature and Value of Happiness

THE NATURE AND VALUE OF HAPPINESS

THE NATURE
AND
VALUE OF HAPPINESS

CHRISTINE VITRANO

Foreword by Steven M. Cahn

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Designed by Pauline Brown

Typeset in 11 point Adobe Garamond Pro

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vitrano, Christine.

The nature and value of happiness / Christine Vitrano.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8133-4728-8 (e-book)

1. Happiness. I. Title.

B105.H36V58 2013

170dc23

2012050399

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Julian and Gabriel, who have made me
happier than I ever could have imagined

CONTENTS

W hat is happiness? How can it be achieved? Should attaining it be our ultimate goal? Might pursuing it ever conflict with our moral obligations?

These questions have been explored by philosophers since well over two millennia ago, when Socrates, then Plato, then Aristotle, then Epicurus strode the streets of Athens. And the issues have remained of concern throughout the centuries, discussed by such towering figures as Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche, as well as leading philosophers of our own time. Indeed, as long as human life continues on earth, so probably will speculation about happiness.

Professor Vitrano has devoted many years to considering the numerous issues that surround happiness, and her understanding of the topic runs deep. Now, in this engaging book, she offers a remarkably lucid presentation of the subject, eschewing arcane terminology, obscure references, and convoluted arguments. She also illustrates her essential points with a host of illuminating examples.

I find her reasoning persuasive and her conclusions compelling. But even those who differ with her will appreciate the clarity of her style and her commitment to common sense.

In fact, reading her delightful book may even contribute to your happiness.

E veryone wants to be happy, but if we ask the simple question What is happiness? something that seems so familiar, even obvious, suddenly becomes difficult to explain. More than two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks inquired into the nature of happiness, and much of the work in the history of ethics is focused on answering their simple question: how can we live happy lives? Aristotle, for example, assumed that even if we have very different understandings of what happiness is and how we go about achieving it, everyone would agree that being happy is the key to living and doing well.

When I teach my class on happiness, I often begin the first lecture with a free association. I write the word happiness on the board and ask the class to share whatever comes to mind. My query is usually met with complete silence. Of course, I know my students have a lot to say about happiness, but I understand their initial hesitation. For all the familiarity of the word, most people recognize that happiness is a complicated concept, and no one wants to risk saying something foolish. After assuring the students that I am not seeking a formal definition, they often relax, and soon the entire board is filled with ideas connected in some way to happiness.

The point of this exercise is not to reach a consensus on how to define happiness, for we have the entire semester to accomplish that goal. Rather, I want my students to realize that they already possess key insights into the nature of happiness, even if their understanding is incomplete. Indeed, I believe we all have important intuitions about when a person is happy or unhappy, and these form the basis of our understanding of the term. These intuitions are useful when we analyze various philosophical views of happiness, and throughout this book, I shall appeal to these intuitions in order to assess particular theories of happiness.

When we examine the philosophical literature on happiness, we quickly note how little our struggles with this concept have changed in more than two thousand years. Although the rise of technology has improved many aspects of our lives, we are still grappling with the same questions posed by the ancient Greeks about how we should live and how we can achieve happiness. Recently, the work of philosophers has been eclipsed by empirically minded researchers in fields as diverse as psychology, sociology, and economics. Thus, research on happiness is no longer confined to academic journals, but rather frequently appears in newspaper and magazine articles. For example, psychologist Daniel Gilberts book The Pursuit of Happiness was a national best seller, and Gilbert himself recently hosted a PBS special series entitled This Emotional Life.

I do not wish to downplay the importance of this empirical work on happiness, for it is interesting and sometimes even surprising. I do wish, however, to emphasize the difference between the kinds of questions these empirical researchers ask and the questions that interest philosophers. Empirical researchers generally begin from the premise that the concept of happiness itself is something we already understand and is easily measured. Their studies typically look at the kinds of activities that promote or hinder happiness, which they often gauge using the subjects first-person reports of her satisfaction or dissatisfaction with her life. But this research begs the question against the philosopher, whose starting point is much more basic. In philosophy, we are not assuming we already have a clear understanding of happiness, for that is precisely why we are investigating the topic. Our goal is to answer questions relating to the nature and value of happiness, but providing answers to these kinds of questions requires a more theoretical approach.