This book tests the critical potential of happiness research to evaluate contemporary high-performance societies. These societies, defined as affluent capitalist societies, emphasize competition and success both institutionally and culturally. Growing affluence improves life in many ways, for a large number of people. We lead longer, safer, and more comfortable lives than previous generations. But we also live faster, and are competition-toughened, like top athletes. As a result, we suspect limits and detect downsides of our high-speed lives. The ubiquitous maximization principle opens up a systematic gateway to the pleasures and pains of contemporary life. Using happiness as a reference point, this book explores the philosophical and empirical limits of the maximization rule. It considers the answer to questions such as: Precisely, why did the idea of (economic) maximization gain so much ground in our Western way of thinking? When, and in which life domains, does maximization work, when does it fail? When do qualities and when do quantities matter? Does maximization yield a different (un)happiness dividend in different species, cultures, and societies? ​

Utilitarianism began as a movement for social reform that changed the world, based on the ideal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. There is a tendency to enter into debates for and against the ethical doctrine of Utilitarianism without a clear understanding of its basic concepts. The Pursuit of Happiness now offers a rigorous account of the foundations of Utilitarianism, and vividly sets out possible ways forward for its future development. To understand Utilitarianism, we must understand utility: how is it to be measured, and how the aggregate utility of a group can be understood. Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms, respectively a cognitive scientist and a philosopher, pursue these questions by adopting both formal and historical methods, examining theories of measuring utility from Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the Utilitarian movement, to the present day, taking in psychophysics, positivism, measurement theory, meaningfulness, neuropsychology, representation theorems, and the dynamics of formation of conventions. On this basis, Narens and Skyrms argue that a meaningful form of Utilitarianism that can coordinate action in social groups is possible through interpersonal comparison and the formation of conventions.

This book presents a discussion of happiness that takes the shape of a dialogue between contemplative knowledge and practice or the wisdom traditions and the social sciences. It examines the different definitions of happiness in relation to wisdom traditions and the impact of these traditions on current research. It explores topics such as the pursuit of a good life, the pursuit of eudaimonia and the meaning of economic and social suffering from the perspective of the social sciences. It further discusses how the social sciences can meet people’s aspirations towards a world of higher well-being in our time, and what the future challenges are. The book includes both theoretical and empirical contributions on the matter and opens up a new line of transdisciplinary research. Overcoming barriers between disciplines and fields of knowledge, the book presents a beneficial cross-fertilization to achieve a wiser model of man.

Human happiness has been a perennial concern of philosophy. The ancients believed that happiness represents the proper final end for mankind. Classical utilitarians held that it constitutes the only thing good in itself. Even the moral philosophy of the eighteenth century, while emphasizing duty, offered the promise of happiness. This work combines an analysis of the Western philosophical tradition with the insights of Eastern mysticism and modern physics to offer a series of recommendations aimed at achieving the goal of human happiness.

"If economists discovered that a certain portion of every individual's money was automatically destroyed, with the wealthiest people losing the most, such would become a central tenet of economic theory. If physicists discovered that some or all of a collection of matter disappeared once too much of it had accumulated, all further work in the material sciences would have to take that principle into account. And if the case can be made that excessive happiness provokes the application of pain from within the mind itself, we must redefine the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, given that people are at their core happiness-maximizing beings, this is an idea that fundamentally redefines not only the pursuit of happiness, but ultimately what it means to be human." In this startling investigation of a core brain function, Kevin E Meredith consults neuroscience, mental health studies, modern culture, and the tortured histories of successful people, past and present, to support the following theory: In order to maximize reproductive effectiveness through emotional balance, the human mind has evolved mechanisms that counter excessive happiness with artificial pain, when natural pain is unavailable. Heirloom of Agony includes an array of ideas for fighting this feature of the mind, some surprising and counter-intuitive.