Edited by Eric
A. Posner and Cass
R. Sunstein is now available from University
of Chicago Press:
Since the earliest
days of philosophy, thinkers have debated the meaning of the term happiness and
the nature of the good life. But it is only in recent years that the study of
happiness—or “hedonics”—has developed into a formal field of inquiry, cutting across
a broad range of disciplines and offering insights into a variety of crucial
questions of law and public policy.
Law and Happiness
brings together the best and most influential thinkers in the field to explore
the question of what makes up happiness—and what factors can be demonstrated to
increase or decrease it. Martha Nussbaum offers an account of the way that
hedonics can productively be applied to psychology, Cass R. Sunstein considers
the unexpected relationship between happiness and health problems, Matthew
Adler and Eric A. Posner view hedonics through the lens of cost-benefit
analysis, David A. Weisbach considers the relationship between happiness and
taxation, and Mark A. Cohen examines the role crime—and fear of crime—can play
in people’s assessment of their happiness, and much more.
The result is a
kaleidoscopic overview of this increasingly prominent field, offering
surprising new perspectives and incisive analyses that will have profound
implications on public policy.
Introduction to the Conference on Law and Happiness
Eric A. Posner and
Cass R. Sunstein
Measuring Well-Being for Public Policy: Preferences or
Experiences?
Paul Dolan and Tessa
Peasgood
Happiness Inequality in the United States
Betsey Stevenson and
Justin Wolfers
Who Is the Happy Warrior? Philosophy Poses Questions to
Psychology
Martha C. Nussbaum
Two Recommendations on the Pursuit of Happiness
Christopher K. Hsee,
Fei Xu, and Ningyu Tang
Hive Psychology, Happiness, and Public Policy
Jonathan Haidt, J.
Patrick Seder, and Selin Kesebir
Illusory Losses
Cass R. Sunstein
Pain and Suffering Awards: They Shouldn’t Be (Just) about
Pain and Suffering
Peter A. Ubel and
George Loewenstein
Death, Happiness, and the Calculation of Compensatory
Damages
Andrew J. Oswald and
Nattavudh Powdthavee
Happiness Research and Cost-Benefit Analysis
Matthew Adler and
Eric A. Posner
What Does Happiness Research Tell Us About Taxation?
David A. Weisbach
The Effect of Crime on Life Satisfaction
Mark A. Cohen
Index
Recommendation from
Solum’s Legal Theory Bookworm here.
My proposed contribution:
The UCC and Happiness (But I Repeat Myself).
An earlier book I would recommend to those interested in this subject is Robert E. Lane's The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000).
One more item: see too Jon Elster's delightful argument, "Self-realisation in work and politics: the Marxist conception of the good life,"* wherein he defends, among other things, the proposition that self-realisation is superior to consumption on both welfarist and nonwelfarist grounds." For instance, and perhaps not surprising given the well-known notion of diminishing marginal utility, Elster (citing Richard L. Solomon and J. D. Corbit's theory of 'opponent process') illustrates how the
"pleasures of consumption tend to become jaded over time, while the withdrawal symptoms become increasingly more severe. The consumption activity remains attractive not because it provides pleasure, but because it offers release from the withdrawal symptoms. Conversely, the attractions of self-realisation [as the 'full and free actualisation and externalisation of the powers and the abilities of the individual'] increase over time, as the start-up costs diminish and the gratification from achievement becomes more profound. There are economies of scale in self-realisation, whereas consumption has the converse property."
Elster proceeds to address the question of the institutional conditions that might promote or block self-realisation.
*In Jon Elster and Karl Ove Moene, eds., Alternatives to Capitalism (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989)
I was surprised to see that you weren't listed in the TOC, Tim — the omission of any serious treatment of the UCC's role in happiness certainly seems like grievous omission. Thanks for the sources, Patrick!