Handbook

Happiness has been pursued by individuals and groups across many cultures and times. Yet it is a concept that takes many different forms and inspires passionate debate and deep disagreement. This course will draw on the history of philosophy across several traditions, as well as contemporary research, to explore questions such as, what is the relationship between happiness and pleasure? Is happiness an emotion, a mental state, a social construct, or an objective condition? How is well-being/happiness pursued across different cultures, including Australian Indigenous cultures? And what does happiness have to do, if anything, with the philosophical idea of a well-lived life? This course doesn’t promise to make you happy, but it will certainly help you to clarify your thinking about happiness and the meaning(s) of life.