The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being

 
I’ve finally gotten around to reading a truly exceptional book: The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being (2008) by Daniel M. Haybron. And having read a fair amount of books over the past several years (on related and unrelated topics), this is clearly among the best of the lot. As I said in response to a query from Chris Panza on Facebook on whether the book “is essentially on positive psychology:” In Haybron’s words, it is “basically a part of...the dark side of positive psychology, as it were.” But the method and tone is thoroughly philosophical and he makes important conceptual distinctions and clarifications about the meanings of happiness, well-being, and the good life, including a helpful taxonomy of the five predominant approaches to well-being. The glowing comments (blurbs) on the back of the book from the likes of Roger Crisp, John Doris and David Chalmers (among others) are not hyperbole. I should note that I’m not quite finished with the book but hope to discuss it in more depth here when I do.

Comments

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

Michael,

I had that review in my "to read" e-mail list: thanks for the reminder! (The last few years have seen a renewed interest in moral psychology, which has long been neglected by many ethicists if not philosophers generally.)

[Michael Perry]

Thanks, Patrick. Just ordered the book. Yesterday, Dan Haybron had an interesting review of an interesting book in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=23649

Michael