Happiness for Humans

Writers on Aristotle's ethics commonly start by regretting that ‘happiness’ is equally inevitable and misleading as a rendering of the Greek eudaimonia, and then keep prudently with the latter. This can suggest that ancient ethics, from Socrates to the Stoics, is preoccupied with a concept that is alien to us. Daniel Russell already engages our attention by his unflinching loyalty to the English term; he further maintains that the two terms connote the same concept. This makes his treatment of Greek texts relevant to our own current concerns. His question is no less than how, in general terms, we are to achieve what we all implicitly want in life. Though he cites passages of text, he is sparing in actual quotation and in engagement with rival interpreters; he writes reflectively and focuses with an alert intelligence upon perennial philosophical issues. Anyone with ethical interests should find their attention engaged. Anyone steeped in the texts will be free to dissent from his readings of them, but is likely to be refreshed by a priority that is thematic rather than textual.

Aesthetics · Dissent · Epistemology · Eudaimonia · Happiness · Loyalty · Political science · Sociology · SOCRATES · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology