Human Flourishing
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum looks at Aristotle's ideas about the goal of both personal life and political planning. She says it was based on the idea of human flourishing, rather than simply happiness or contentment.
Is Ethics Based on Character?: Using Virtue Ethics in Complex Situations
In contrast to utilitarianism and Kantianism, virtue ethics is helpful in making sound judgments in complex situations. The virtue at work here is what Aristotle calls phronesis-- practical intelligence or wisdom. You learn for yourself why it is im...
Emotions: Research Related to Happiness Expands
Happiness, or "subjective well being," includes such positive emotions as feelings of love, joy, and life satisfaction. Research reveals that factors like financial well being and success have a relatively small bearing on happiness in comparison to...
Emotions and Physical Reactions
Psychologist and author Paul Ekman talks about the physiological changes that accompany emotions. "We were able to...establish different patterns of changes in heart rate, skin conductants, skin temperature for fear, anger, sadness and disgust," Dr ...
Marriage and Commitment: Why Do People Marry?
Most people today would say they married for love and the desire to spend the rest of their lives with the object of their affection Historically, however, marriage was an economic bargain, a means of establishing property and power and perpetuati...
Exuberance and Happiness
Professor of psychiatry and author Kay Redfield Jamison says that there isn't really a relationship between happiness and exuberance, because happiness has "a certain static quality about it and a certain contented quality to it." Dr. Jamison explai...
Language, Truth and Happiness
Philosopher Richard Rorty explains his belief that the quest for happiness is more fundamental than the quest for truth. In his view, people developed language in order to achieve kinds of happiness they hadn't achieved previously. Professor Rorty a...
Well-Being
Nobel Prize winning professor of psychology Daniel Kahneman talks about research that attempts to determine how happy people are with their lives. "What I like better," Dr. Kahneman explains, "is an approach in which we try to see what is life actua...