Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility: Happiness in Philosophical and Economic Thought.(Book review)

Publication: Journal of Economic Issues

Publication Date: 01-SEP-07

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COPYRIGHT 2007 Association for Evolutionary Economics

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility: Happiness in Philosophical and Economic Thought, by Anthony and Charles Kenny. Exeter: Imprint Academic. 2006. Paper: ISBN 1845400526, 17.95 [pounds sterling], $ 34.90. 227 pages.

The authors, Anthony (Oxford) and Charles Kenny (Washington DC), attempt to combine economics and philosophy in the consideration of happiness. The book has three main constituents: welfare, contentment, and dignity. The central thesis is "that income is a poor proxy for any of these. Beyond some minimal level, increasing income appears at best weakly correlated with improvements of welfare, dignity or contentment within or across countries over time" (p. 9).

In the long first chapter, philosophies of happiness are delineated: Aristotle, the Epicureans, the Stoics, St. Augustine, Bentham, Kant et al. It is a great intellectual pleasure to read the chapter: focused on the essential points, witty, profound but well understandable, the reader feels the moral and political commitment of the authors....

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