The Proper Pursuit of Happiness

Is happiness, understood as a mental state or condition, an appropriate object of pursuit? If so, what are the rules of the game? Such questions have been the object of some debate in recent years, particularly with the rise of the positive psychology movement. Disputants have divided, very crudely, along Benthamite and Aristotelian lines, with the latter evincing considerable skepticism about the Benthamite program, and even about the propriety of pursuing happiness at all. This talk will consider the most serious doubts about the pursuit of happiness, arguing that the skeptical case falls short: happiness is a perfectly reasonable, indeed quite important, object of pursuit. Yet efforts to promote happiness are subject to far stronger normative constraints than the Benthamites, and positive psychology researchers generally, have tended to realize. The pursuit of happiness, uninformed by serious ethical reflection, risks devolving into a repugnant form of self- manipulation.