Category: C. Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility
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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility: Happiness in Philosophical and Economic Thought is being published in October, 2006. The book is co-authored with my father, Anthony Kenny. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility relates age-old philosophical discussions of the nature of a worth-while life to the recent growth of interest among economists in…
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Chapter One of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility discusses the history of the philosophy of happiness. In the light of what Aristotle says, we might offer ‘worthwhile life’ as the most appropriate translation of his word ‘eudaimonia’. For Aristotle, this ‘happiness’ must be an end rather than a means and it must be…
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Chapter Two of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility looks at what writers have said in the past about the links between the good life, income and institutions. There was a widespread concern in the seventeenth century Dutch Republic that the country had too much wealth, and was having too jolly a time, for…
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Chapter Three of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility discusses the role of health in philosophical discussions of the good life. Throughout most of the history of thought, philosophers have underplayed the importance of physical health as a constituent of happiness. Aristotle, for example, appears to have believed that the enjoyment of health throughout…
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Chapter Four of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility examines the determinants of welfare –the causal factors behind changes in levels of health and violence worldwide. Global average life expectancy was 24 years in 1000 AD, 31 years in 1900 and reached 66 years in 1999. It is widely assumed that, because at any…
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Chapter Five of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility discusses the components of dignity. To possess dignity you must have a degree of choice and control over your life, the life that you lead must be a worthwhile one, and it must carry with it a degree of prestige. To preserve choice, key elements…
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Chapter Six of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility explores the role that income plays in dignity but also about the broader relationship between economic development and dignity. Over the long term, for example, measures of civil and political rights have gone up on average worldwide. So has income. This has led some to…
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Chapter Seven of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility asks "do people know if they are happy?": If the most important elements in happiness are welfare and dignity, then individuals are not necessarily the best authorities on their own condition. We may be mistaken about the state of our bodily health,and our acquiescence in…
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Chapter Eight of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility explores subjective wellbeing polls ("taking your life as a whole, would you rate yourself very happy, somewhat happy, or not happy at all?"). Those who say they are happy smile more than the average person, appear happier to friends and family, have higher self-esteem, are…
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Chapter Nine of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility suggests that there are three elements essential to a moral system. There must be a moral community, a set of moral values, and a moral code. Just as philosophers have disagreed about the nature of happiness, so they have disagreed about each of these elements…
Charles Kenny 