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The “happiness agenda” is a worldwide movement that claims that happiness is the highest good, happiness can be measured, and public policy should promote happiness. Against Happiness is a thorough and powerful critique of this program, revealing the flaws of its concept of happiness and advocating a renewed focus on equality and justice.
Written by an interdisciplinary team of authors, this book provides both theoretical and empirical analysis of the limitations of the happiness agenda. The authors emphasize that this movement draws on a parochial, Western-centric philosophical basis and demographic sample. They show that happiness defined as subjective satisfaction or a surplus of positive emotions bears little resemblance to the richer and more nuanced concepts of the good life found in many world traditions. Cross-cultural philosophy, comparative theology, and social and cultural psychology all teach that cultures and subcultures vary in how much value they place on life satisfaction or feeling happy. Furthermore, the ideas promoted by the happiness agenda can compete with rights, justice, sustainability, and equality—and even conceal racial and gender injustice.
Against Happiness argues that a better way forward requires integration of cross-cultural philosophical, ethical, and political thought with critical social science. Ultimately, the authors contend, happiness should be a secondary goal—worth pursuing only if it is contingent on the demands of justice.
Preface
Introduction
Part I: Happiness Philosophy and Happiness Science
1. Introduction: The Happiness Agenda
2. Varieties of Theories and Measures of Well-Being and Happiness
3. How Should We Think About the Emotion of Happiness Scientifically? Lessons from the Science of Fear
4. Why Averaging Happiness Scores and Comparing Them Is a Terrible Idea
Part II: Culture and Happiness
5. Positive and Negative Emotions: Culture, Content, and Context
6. Happiness and Well-Being as Cultural Projects: Immigration, Biculturalism, Cultural Belonging
7. Happiness and Well-Being in Contemporary China
Part III: Race, Racism, Resignation
8. Happiness, Race, and Hermeneutical Justice: The Case of African American Mental Health
9. Interpreting Self-Reports of Well-Being
Part IV: Conclusions
10. Recommendations for Policy Use of Happiness Metrics
11. Universal Rights, Sustainable Development, and Happiness: Two out of Three Ain’t Bad
Part V: Responses by Four Critics
12. On Ersatz Happiness, by Jennifer A. Frey
13. Why the Analysis and Assessment of Happiness Matters, by Hazel Rose Markus
14. Three out of Three Is Better, by Jeffrey D. Sachs
15. What the Gallup World Poll Could Do to Deepen Our Understanding of Happiness in Different Cultures, by Jeanne L. Tsai
Notes
References
Index
Description
The “happiness agenda” is a worldwide movement that claims that happiness is the highest good, happiness can be measured, and public policy should promote happiness. Against Happiness is a thorough and powerful critique of this program, revealing the flaws of its concept of happiness and advocating a renewed focus on equality and justice.
Written by an interdisciplinary team of authors, this book provides both theoretical and empirical analysis of the limitations of the happiness agenda. The authors emphasize that this movement draws on a parochial, Western-centric philosophical basis and demographic sample. They show that happiness defined as subjective satisfaction or a surplus of positive emotions bears little resemblance to the richer and more nuanced concepts of the good life found in many world traditions. Cross-cultural philosophy, comparative theology, and social and cultural psychology all teach that cultures and subcultures vary in how much value they place on life satisfaction or feeling happy. Furthermore, the ideas promoted by the happiness agenda can compete with rights, justice, sustainability, and equality—and even conceal racial and gender injustice.
Against Happiness argues that a better way forward requires integration of cross-cultural philosophical, ethical, and political thought with critical social science. Ultimately, the authors contend, happiness should be a secondary goal—worth pursuing only if it is contingent on the demands of justice.
