Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction

Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction PDF Author: Deal Wyatt Hudson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847681402
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
In classical and medieval times, happiness was defined as 'well-being, ' a notion that included moral goodness. Today happiness is most often defined as 'well-feeling, ' and identified with subjective states such as satisfaction and peace of mind. Deal Hudson argues that the prevailing view is dangerous in politics as well as ethics, creating individuals with no other sense of obligation than finding personal satisfaction, regardless of the moral and spiritual cost to themselves and others. Hudson calls for a return to the classical tradition: no one should be called 'happy' who cannot also be called morally good. However, a contemporary version of happiness should also go beyond the classical notion by making room in the happy life for suffering and passion. Using the history of the idea of happiness as a backdrop to a critique of contemporary views, Hudson examines happiness from philosophical, religious, psychological, sociological, literary, and political points of view--for example, he shows how the tension between the two definitions of happiness is at the heart of the Declaration of Independence. The result is an excellent overview of the history of an idea as well as a compelling argument for moral and political change in our time.

Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction

Happiness and the Limits of Satisfaction PDF Author: Deal Wyatt Hudson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847681402
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
In classical and medieval times, happiness was defined as 'well-being, ' a notion that included moral goodness. Today happiness is most often defined as 'well-feeling, ' and identified with subjective states such as satisfaction and peace of mind. Deal Hudson argues that the prevailing view is dangerous in politics as well as ethics, creating individuals with no other sense of obligation than finding personal satisfaction, regardless of the moral and spiritual cost to themselves and others. Hudson calls for a return to the classical tradition: no one should be called 'happy' who cannot also be called morally good. However, a contemporary version of happiness should also go beyond the classical notion by making room in the happy life for suffering and passion. Using the history of the idea of happiness as a backdrop to a critique of contemporary views, Hudson examines happiness from philosophical, religious, psychological, sociological, literary, and political points of view--for example, he shows how the tension between the two definitions of happiness is at the heart of the Declaration of Independence. The result is an excellent overview of the history of an idea as well as a compelling argument for moral and political change in our time.

Limits to Satisfaction

Limits to Satisfaction PDF Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773506886
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
At a time when the supply of resources is a problem, William Leiss analyses demand and consumption. Why do we need so much? Does the ability to choose from such a wide range of commodities give us more satisfaction? Why do we accept being pushed into buying products about which we know little because they promise to give us a particular characteristic - freshness, happiness, sex appeal?

The Limits of Optimism

The Limits of Optimism PDF Author: Maurizio Valsania
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813931517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The Limits of Optimism works to dispel persistent notions about Jefferson’s allegedly paradoxical and sphinx-like quality. Maurizio Valsania shows that Jefferson’s multifaceted character and personality are to a large extent the logical outcome of an anti-metaphysical, enlightened, and humility-oriented approach to reality. That Jefferson’s mind and priorities changed over time and in response to changing circumstances indicates neither incoherence, hypocrisy, nor pathology. Valsania’s reading of Jefferson, the Enlightenment, and negativity helps to make sense of the many paradoxes typically associated with that eighteenth-century thinker. At the same time, it provides a corrective to the common though erroneous equation of Enlightenment thinking with rationalism and shallow optimism.

Decisions of the Department of the Interior and the General Land Office in Cases Relating to the Public Lands

Decisions of the Department of the Interior and the General Land Office in Cases Relating to the Public Lands PDF Author: United States. Department of the Interior
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public lands
Languages : en
Pages : 774

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Book Description


The Limits of Satisfaction

The Limits of Satisfaction PDF Author: William Leiss
Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers
ISBN: 9780714526478
Category : Consumption (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
At a time when the supply of resources is a problem, William Leiss analyses demand and consumption. Why do we need so much? Does the ability to choose from such a wide range of commodities give us more satisfaction? Why do we accept being pushed into buying products about which we know little because they promise to give us a particular characteristic - freshness, happiness, sex appeal?

Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of New York: Wendell v.1-26

Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of New York: Wendell v.1-26 PDF Author: New York (State). Supreme Court
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law reports, digests, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 846

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Book Description


Proceedings of the National Seminar on Applied Systems Engineering and Soft Computing

Proceedings of the National Seminar on Applied Systems Engineering and Soft Computing PDF Author:
Publisher: Allied Publishers
ISBN: 9788177640151
Category : Soft computing
Languages : en
Pages : 678

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Book Description


The Limits of the Market

The Limits of the Market PDF Author: Paul de Grauwe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198784287
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Paul De Grauwe examines why a healthy mix of market and state seems so difficult and analyses the internal and external limits of the market and the government, and the swing between these two points.

Lacan and the Limits of Language

Lacan and the Limits of Language PDF Author: Charles Shepherdson
Publisher: Fordham University Press
ISBN: 0823237842
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This book weaves together three themes at the intersection of Jacques Lacan and the philosophical tradition. The first is the question of time and memory. How do these problems call for a revision of Lacan’s purported “ahistoricism,” and how does the temporality of the subject in Lacan intersect with the questions of temporality initiated by Heidegger and then developed by contemporary French philosophy? The second question concerns the status of the body in Lacanian theory, especially in connection with emotion and affect, which Lacanian theory is commonly thought to ignore, but which the concept of jouissance was developed to address. Finally, it aims to explore, beyond the strict limits of Lacanian theory, possible points of intersection between psychoanalysis and other domains, including questions of race, biology, and evolutionary theory. By stressing the question of affect, the book shows how Lacan’s position cannot be reduced to the structuralist models he nevertheless draws upon, and thus how the problem of the body may be understood as a formation that marks the limits of language. Exploring the anthropological category of “race” within a broadly evolutionary perspective, it shows how Lacan’s elaboration of the “imaginary” and the “symbolic” might allow us to explain human physiological diversity without reducing it to a cultural or linguistic construction or allowing “race” to remain as a traditional biological category. Here again the questions of history and temporality are paramount, and open the possibility for a genuine dialogue between psychoanalysis and biology. Finally, the book engages literary texts. Antigone, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Hamlet, and even Wordsworth become the muses who oblige psychoanalysis and philosophy to listen once again to the provocations of poetry, which always disrupts our familiar notions of time and memory, of history and bodily or affective experience, and of subjectivity itself.

The Limits to Scarcity

The Limits to Scarcity PDF Author: Lyla Mehta
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136538941
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Scarcity is considered a ubiquitous feature of the human condition. It underpins much of modern economics and is widely used as an explanation for social organisation, social conflict and the resource crunch confronting humanity's survival on the planet. It is made out to be an all-pervasive fact of our lives - be it of housing, food, water or oil. But has the conception of scarcity been politicized, naturalized, and universalized in academic and policy debates? Has overhasty recourse to scarcity evoked a standard set of market, institutional and technological solutions which have blocked out political contestations, overlooking access as a legitimate focus for academic debates as well as policies and interventions? Theoretical and empirical chapters by leading academics and scholar-activists grapple with these issues by questioning scarcity's taken-for-granted nature. They examine scarcity debates across three of the most important resources - food, water and energy - and their implications for theory, institutional arrangements, policy responses and innovation systems. The book looks at how scarcity has emerged as a totalizing discourse in both the North and South. The 'scare' of scarcity has led to scarcity emerging as a political strategy for powerful groups. Aggregate numbers and physical quantities are trusted, while local knowledges and experiences of scarcity that identify problems more accurately and specifically are ignored. Science and technology are expected to provide 'solutions', but such expectations embody a multitude of unexamined assumptions about the nature of the 'problem', about the technologies and about the institutional arrangements put forward as a 'fix.' Through this examination the authors demonstrate that scarcity is not a natural condition: the problem lies in how we see scarcity and the ways in which it is socially generated.