By: Bob Fancher

Bob Fancher — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 12:43:21 +0000

Deft, clear, illuminating Everyone wants to be happy, right? Of course. But what, exactly, does it mean to say that?The concept, “happiness,” means drastically different things to different people. McMahon takes us on a grand tour of how the concept has fluctuated and functioned in Western cultures. If you read this book thoughtfully, the notion that “Everyone wants to be happy” becomes less a platitude and more a conundrum.If you’re well educated in Western history, you won’t find a lot of new ideas here–but you will find what you already know reorganized and, in the process, illuminated. The stuff you already know is supplemented by minor historical figures and movements you’ve probably not had occasion to encounter before. The result is thought-provoking.My two complaints are about the last chapter.First, McMahon takes a surprisingly uncritical view of contemporary psychiatric and psychological notions–and doesn’t even understand them. In fact–as a substantial body of careful scholarship has shown–notions of mental health owe a great deal to the Enlightenment ideology that McMahon had already explained very nicely before getting to this chapter. But suddenly, he accepts mental health as more or less “sui generis,” without historical or cultural influences.And sadly, he often doesn’t even understand the psychological literature he cites. For instance, he refers to studies which he interprets as showing that happiness “is [x]% genetic.” But that’s not what those studies say, or claim to say. They say, rather, that [x]% of the variance (which is a statistical construct, not a trait) among a population (not a characteristic of individuals) is accounted for by genetics–which is a drastically different notion. I was surprised to see McMahon lacking even an elementary understanding of the concept of a heritability quotient, yet using the concept so prominently.Second, while it may be unfair to expect a historian to shed light on gigantic contemporary problems, McMahon’s disquisition on the importance of “meaningfulness” to satisfying lives comes off as unanchored and unhelpful, precisely because he doesn’t have anything useful to say about why it’s so hard to find meaning in one’s life in post-Enlightenment society and what to do about it. I finished this book thinking, “Well, if McMahon’s right, the West is just done-for, then. We’ve eaten our own young–undermined the conditions for meaningful lives, hence for satisfying lives.”Still, the historical analysis, and the deft presentation of massive amounts of material, are well worth your time. And from the cover picture, it looks like McMahon’s a youngster–so I don’t guess we should expect him to point the way for Western culture to escape its contradictions quite yet in his career!

By: sb-lynn

sb-lynn — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 12:22:57 +0000

Well researched, well written I just finished reading Happiness: A History. This was a very interesting read, and a very informative one.In summary, McMahon takes us on a philosophical review of happiness, starting with Socrates, and taking us up to modern times. Along the way, we read the opinions of such notable figures as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Napolean, Locke, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith, Hume, Mill, Weber, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud…to name a few.I particularly liked the last part of the book, with McMahon pointing out the relevance of Huxley’s Brave New World in our own world today. We are a culture that feels happiness is our right, and the search for it extends to recent advances in pharmacology.In reading this book you will learn about all the various theories and definitions of “happiness,” and how each era dealt with it differently. This book is very well researched and presented.I do have to tell you, Happiness: A History, can be pretty depressing, and there are many parts of the book that are downright bleak. (In an existential kind of way, at least for me.)Still, highly recommended for those interested in the subject, and for anyone who wants to get a good overview of philosophy through the ages.

Comments on: Happiness: A History

By: Bob Fancher

By: sb-lynn