Civil Happiness Economics and Human Flourishing in Historical Perspective [Paperback]

Economists have long laboured under the misapprehension that all humans exist as rational beings that find happiness in maximizing their personal utility. This impressive volume presents an historical review of the evolution of economic thought, from economic philosophy to contemporary mathematical economics, and its critique of how the human and social dimensions of economics have been lost in this evolutionary process.

Examining the crucial period in the late eighteenth century when economists such Smith and Genovesi tried to reconcile the classical tradition of Civil humanism emerging commercial society, this key book analyses the impact that the hedonist approach to economics had in removing the ethical conception of happiness. In addition, it focuses on the impact that J.S. Mill, Wicksteed and Pareto had in shifting methodological thinking away from an emphasis on civil happiness. Simply put, this book is essential reading for economists everywhere.

Introduction and Summary.  Acknowledgements.  Part 1: Happiness, Again  1. The Easterlin Paradox  2. Happiness and More  3. What is Happiness?  Part2: The Explanations of the Easterlin Paradox  1. Hedonic Treadmill and Set-Point Theory  2. Satisfaction Treadmill  3. The social treadmill  Part3: From the Civil to the Uncivil Animal   1. Aristotles Eudaimonia  2. Civic Humanism  3. The Sunset of the Civil  4. The Uncivil Animal Tradition  Part 4: Public Happiness  1. Towards a New Foundation of Civil life  2. Della Pubblica Felicit?  3. Between Tradition and Modernity  Part5: Genovesi, and the Neapolitan SclÆ