Human Happiness and the Pursuit of Maximization: Is More Always Better? (Happiness Studies Book Series 2)

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? -- Provided by Publisher Front Matter....Pages i-viii Happiness and Maximization: An Introduction....Pages 1-14 Is More Always Better? The American Experiment....Pages 15-26 More Nonsense and Less Happiness: The Uninteded Effects of Artificial Competitions....Pages 27-40 Happiness by Maximization?....Pages 41-54 Maximization and the Good....Pages 55-67 How Wise is Mother Nature? Maximization, Optimization and Short-Sighted Resource Use in Biological Evolution....Pages 69-80 Towards a Neuroscience of Well-Being: Implications of Insights from Pleasure Research....Pages 81-100 From Treating Mental Dysfunction to Neuroenhancement....Pages 101-113 Do Aspirations and Adaptation Impede the Maximization of Happiness?....Pages 115-129 My Car is Bigger than Yours: Consumption, Status Competition, and Happiness in Times of Affluence....Pages 131-147 Some Lessons from Happiness Economics for Environmental Sustainability....Pages 149-162 Public Policy and Human Happiness: The Welfare State and the Market as Agents of Well-Being....Pages 163-175 Should the State Care for the Happiness of its Citizens?....Pages 177-190 A “Happiness Test” for the New Measures of National Well-Being: How Much Better than GDP are They?....Pages 191-210 Back Matter....Pages 211-216