Vision Of Happiness Research Articles

THE CONCEPT OF HAPPINESS IN BIOETHICAL RESEARCH (QUALITY OF LIFE CONCEPTION)

The topic of happiness is one of the oldest in philosophical researches. Now it is the subject of interest, in particular, for bioethicists, scientists who are looking for the principles of proper treatment of human life, health, and death. The concept of happiness acquires special significance in the quality of life bioethical conception. The author of the article outlines the origins of the understanding of happiness adopted by the supporters of this conception, as well as gives examples of its application by them (above all by P. Singer, L. Nordenfelt, and J. McMahan). The quality of life bioethical conception adopted utilitarian vision of happiness, developed mainly by J. Bentham and J. S. Mill. According to it, happiness is identified with benefit or pleasure, which can be measured and maximized. In the XX century utilitarians began to consider autonomy – the ability of a person to manage his or her own life and death – as an important element of happiness. The influence of the preference utilitarianism is also noticeable. In obedience to it they see happiness in the ability of person to realize his or her rational and autonomous desires. The medical conditions that does not allow it are interpreted as lack of happiness. Thus, they justify not only the admissibility of withdrawing treatment that doesn’t give the expected result, but also of euthanasia. Killing a person, in terms of the quality of life conception, may not be a lack of happiness if the other alternative is to continue living in conditions that do not allow a person to realize his or her preferences, or does not coincide with his or her ideas of a decent life. The lives of persons who do not manifest rationality and autonomy are interpreted as inhuman, as wrongful, and the person as deprived of the right to happiness. Critics of the quality of life conception point to the subjectivity of the criteria by which happiness is measured. The second reproach is the reference to the absence of a hierarchy of values. That is why they give pleasure and absence of suffering too much importance.

Alfombrismo: Ephimeral Art Utopia

The way in which we experience public space is closely related to the sociocultural and environmental conditions of the context. Similar to the garden – in the strict philosophical sense- Traditional Tapestry ephemeral art represents a utopia; it stands for an aesthetic theory of beauty and a vision of happiness. Traditional ephemeral art is conceptualized as a utopian space where diverse elements, people, as well as a wide variety of activities converge; those are the ones who transform reality through cultural expression, exploring habits and values which pursue a common goal in a livingly way, and improve social coexistence. Tapestry ephemeral art temporarily and actively transforms their surroundings. It is in that public space where it is embraced that a dialogue is modelled; a dialogue where not only formal appearance but also designing constructive one converge, as an artistic, philosophical, and spiritual expression of its community itself. Such artistic intervention allows physical proximity; in a whole overview vision of urban context, design displays Mexican art values and transforms public space. The greater the proximity, the greater the change in the scale of the work, therefore, it is possible to feel immersed in the piece and identify the natural material, which in its arrangement and place, reveals the garden utopia –symbol of harmony between itself and the atmosphere portrayed in a living work of art. Nowadays, the isolated streets in many different parts of the world reflect a universal reality which urges a re-connection with the natural environment to which we belong, as well as a transformation of the sociocultural interactions that emerge from responsibility, equality and the common good.

In Fortune Fair and Foul

This article focuses on the idiosyncratic conception of happiness Sir Kenelm Digby develops in the letters he wrote after the death of his wife in 1633. It contextualises Digby’s vision of happiness through an examination of the different traditions he revisits and appropriates to develop his personal and subjective ethics of self-care, mainly Renaissance Neoplatonism, the idealisation of conjugal love, the idealism of Italian poetry, and an ascetic model of widowhood linked to the tradition of spiritual mourning. It analyses how Digby’s conception of happiness, through its vindication of subjectivity and excess, challenges the early modern ethos of consolation and speculates on the reasons that may have led Digby to present his readers with such an extraordinary self-portrait.

Compréhension et prise en compte de la notion de bonheur, quel impact dans la réflexion économique ? Le bonheur, un concept difficile à mesurer

The questions addressed are : what do we know, in the current state of knowledge, happiness, and its importance for human development, global and individual ? Can you outline a general approach ? How this approach is essential to determine our goals, social and individual ? To answer these questions the methodology of this article consists, firstly, to present the main empirical results on the subject. Many databases have emerged : the NBB, the World Database of Happiness, IBM, HDI and many others. Investigations have provided the opportunity to work on large amounts of data on the level of happiness felt by the population, and its causes. They complement, but lead ultimately to results often close. The second part analyzes the relevance and limitations of these investigations, in order to more precisely the emergence of a definition of happiness and its components. The purpose of the third part is to define the economic significance of these results. Indeed, many economic theories are based on a vision of happiness underlying, whatsoever for example in the calculation of individual productivity (efficiency wage theory), or in determining the choice (bounded rationality)… We conclude this work by a simple model of the impact of happiness in our choices.

THE MEANING OF HISTORY IN RELIGIOUS AND PHILISOPHICAL UNDERSTANDING

The article focuses on the analysis of the complex process caused by the changes in the geopolitics of Russia in the light of which the meaning of history is considered today as the problem of being relevant to it in the formation of the global ethos. The “clock” of the world seems to go right: from the East to the West, but the religion of Christianity acts from the West to the East. What is then the meaning of changes, where and in which form is expressed the process of its inclusion in the cultural-scientific paradigm which is so important for the world in order to make influence on the ethos and the normal solutions of the Worldsystem? But the practice shows that the question about the meaning of history relates not only to religion but also to «the circle of the eternal problems» of philosophy. If there were an answer which might have suited philosophers for a long time, the problem would have been considered as a solved problem and it would have lost its status of an important one. But since history will go on, its practical problems, the contents of crises and their solutions will change, we can definitely suppose that no formula about the meaning of history will ever give a final answer, if the role of the Man, his right for life and his life program are not considered. Each individual has his ideals and vision of happiness of his family and his nation.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION: GOAL AND JOURNEY

AbstractThis article explores resources within the Christian theological tradition that recognize happiness in earthly life while also preparing Christians for ultimate happiness through union with God. Two resources explored in the article are the appreciation of happiness in Jesus's ministry and its engagement with Greek philosophy. After exploring these resources, the article turns to Aelred of Rievaulx, the great medieval theologian, to investigate how moral virtue, transcendent happiness, and earthly pleasure are harmonious parts of a holistic Christian vision of happiness. Finally, after examining Aelred's contribution, the article considers how this integrated view of happiness can help us to think through the problems of happiness in our lives today.

Gender mainstreaming in value chain development: Experience with Gender Action Learning System in Uganda

There is an emerging consensus that promoting gender justice in value chain development is not only a rights issue for women, but makes ‘business sense’ for households, enterprises, and ultimately the national economy. This article discusses experiences using a community-led methodology, Gender Action Learning System (GALS), with producers and traders of coffee, maize, fruits (avocados, pineapples, and passion fruit), and beans in Kasese District, Western Uganda. This community-led value chain development methodology has brought about profound changes for significant numbers of people in a relatively short period of time, on sensitive and potentially conflictual issues such as gender-based violence and land ownership as well as decision-making, division of labour, and women's access to health and education. These changes have taken place with the full support of many men who have become enthusiastic promoters of gender equality as part of their own vision of happiness and social justice. Addressing gender inequalities at all levels of the chain forms a ‘win-win strategy’ which has increased incomes and contributed to upgrading whole value chains and developing the local economy.

The Laws of Hospitality: Liberty, Generosity, and the Limits of Dissent in William Morris's 'The Tables Turned' and 'News from Nowhere'

This article scrutinizes recent critical claims that William Morris's The Tables Turned (1887) and News from Nowhere (1890) constitute exceptionally tolerant and accommodating visions of the ideal society. The first section provides evidence in support of Morris's liberalistic concern for the rights of minorities. The second and third sections complicate this analysis, stressing Morris's parallel commitment to informal regulatory methods. Particular attention is directed towards the role of hospitality in these utopias, a form of generosity whose combination of freedom and control is comparable to the operation of gift-exchanges as understood by Marcel Mauss. ********** In the postscript to his revised edition of William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary (1) E. P. Thompson considers M.M.-H. Abensour's now influential reading of News from Nowhere (1890). (2) Referring primarily to Abensour's guiding conception of an 'education of desire', he identifies the French critic's approach as a useful and productive way of reappraising Morris's utopianism. Thompson's enthusiasm for Abensour has not been uncontroversial. Perry Anderson, for one, notoriously characterized it as a brief insinuation of that 'Parisian irrationalism' which favours 'metaphysical vacancy' over 'clear and observable meaning'. (3) Among the more receptive responses to Thompson's postscript has been that of Ruth Levitas, who takes into account the views of both Thompson and Anderson, and synthesizes them: Morris's utopianism, Levitas argues, is no vague expression of frustrated desire, but rather a disciplined, politically effective, form of dream. (4) Most critics have adopted a less guarded approach in accounting for the imaginative processes that inform this vision of the ideal society. In recent discussions of News from Nowhere one hears less of discipline than of Morris's exceptional openness, receptivity, and pluralism. (5) William Morris @ News from Nowhere (1990), a collection of essays issued to mark the centenary year of the work's publication, is typical in this respect. Morris is presented here as a kind of anarcho-communist forebear of recent trends. The views of the volume's editor, Stephen Coleman, are especially germane. He suggests, first, that 'in Nowhere cohesion is not the product of compulsion', and second, that our recurrent failure to endorse Morris's insistence on the achievability of political liberty is merely 'a reflection of the intensity of the modern fear of freedom' (p. 89). (6) What limits Morris may have placed on the scope of these freedoms, or more specifically on the conduct of his utopians, have received far less attention. Of course the troubled history of utopian experimentation in the twentieth century makes this emphasis unsurprising. It is now a precondition of any favourable appraisal of Morris's work that it echo A. L. Morton's assertion that 'Morris' is the first Utopia which is not utopian'. (7) All the same, it is my purpose in this article to insist on the limited nature of Nowhere's openness. This does not mean that I dispute the common assertion that News from Nowhere constitutes a libertarian utopia. As the first part of this discussion should serve to demonstrate, much evidence exists to support such a reading. It has simply become necessary to register the fact that, in certain respects, Nowhere remains typically utopian, that it constitutes a vision of happiness achieved by means of an act of exclusion. Morris, this is to say, exercises his sovereignty as a utopist: he leaves out what displeases him. 'News from Nowhere': A Tolerant Utopia? In the first half of the twentieth century Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek began to express the view that the crimes of Fascism and Communism were directly attributable to the historicism latent in utopian thought. (8) The misgivings prompting such critiques were only strengthened by the publication of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1920-21), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), all three of them dystopias. …

The Pursuit of Comfort: The Modern and the Material in the Early Modern British Atlantic World

No one knows with certainty what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when in 1776 he wrote that pursuit of represented a universal and inalienable right. Yet the enigmatic nature of the phrase has not stopped historians from weighing in on its meaning. Indeed, like any good mystery, it invites interesting speculation. Pursuing happiness could mean the search for security, individual freedom, or worldly goods. It could represent the distillation of Scottish Enlightenment thought, or it could embody in a few catchy words the sum total of Lockean liberalism. However we define Jefferson's vision of happiness, though, it would seem to imply a modern sensibility that had more universal appeal than the inviolability of property, which along with life and liberty comprised Locke's God-given rights.' When Jefferson was drafting the Declaration of Independence, the colonies were not only caught in the throes of a war, but were also grappling with what it meant to be modern. Historians have long argued that in the decades before the Revolution Americans witnessed a consumer revolution, increased secularization, the growing influence of new ideas, and developing class-consciousness. More recently, studies such as Richard Bushman's The Refinement of America (1992) and Jon Butler's Becoming America (2000) have pinpointed the birth of modern sensibilities like pursuing happiness in the rise of a consumer culture. In this development, America lagged only behind Britain, which had already become a society inhabited by, in the words of Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People (1992). Indeed, as John Brewer contends in The Pleasures of the Imagination (1997), a mania for the consumption of things material and ethereal defined the English eighteenth century. While Jefferson's original intent eludes us, the thrust of his vision of happiness does not. Pursuing happiness stood for something new and different; in some way it reflected the emergence of a modern sensibility of consumption that marked a larger

A Psychoanalytic Vision of Happiness

A Psychoanalytic Vision of Happiness

Art in Play‐Time

‘The Machine has no rights,’ said the philosopher, ‘let us exploit it.’ Let it once be made the slave of all men and who knows what other Athens shall arise. It is a pity that this vision of happiness should ever have been called the Leisure State; for if there is one thing certain about Leisure States it is that nobody wants them. If men and women want leisure it is only in order to act in a way which pleases them. Play itself is activity, and, very often, the more it resembles hard work the more fun it provides. You may distinguish play from work as fun is distinguished from drudgery, but this is a bad distinction, for there is no reason why Mr. Selfrdge should not be right in saying, ‘There is no fun like work.’ Play is best distinguished from work as means is distinguished from end; play is for work and work is for the Last End, or is the Last End if we can call work that operation by which man apprehends God. Play is a sort of artificial work freely undertaken for the sake of more work afterwards. It is true that little children do not normally play games with any thought of working better when they leave off; but this is because, being little children, their play is their work, in much the same way as the play of lambs and kittens is the serious work of lambs and kittens. Play, in the sense of recreation, does not begin until responsible human work begins; until the ‘age of reason.’ Until then the child’s play is just one of the ways by which it quite seriously adjusts itself to the Universe. Its play is all movement and mimicry. It cannot play without playing ‘at’ something, unless it simply jumps about.