品格長處與德行在促成個體幸福／快樂中的角色：評介M. E. P. Seligman著《Authentic Happiness》

Abstract

Positive psychology attempts to reverse the disease model upon which psychology had traditionally advanced, and to help the general people live a happy life. This very concern of interest is shared with the main philosophical founder of contemporary character education, i.e. Aristotle, whose primary concern is eudaimonia/ happiness. Seligman aims to endorse the age-old controversial doctrine of the unity of virtue and happiness. This paper aims to elucidate the role which character strengths and virtues play in promoting an individual's happiness in the light of Seligman's theory of happiness. It is found that Seligman's concept of happiness is comprised of the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life, and happiness in the full sense is composed of the aforementioned three kinds of life. Among them, authentic happiness is derived from the latter two kinds of life. Seligman puts forth a central thesis to the effect that authentic happiness comes from exercising one's signature strengths and virtues, and it is in this sense that virtue and happiness are said to be unified. An important educational implication is that in order to help the student to obtain authentic happiness and lead a good and meaningful life, an educator has to identify and nurture each student's signature strengths with insight, and to engage him/her in positive activities with strengths and virtues. This thesis helps to illustrate the concept of ＂education well-being＂ and it is also allied with the ideal of ＂adaptive education＂ in the twelve-year basic education programme.