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Not suffering, not melancholy: Review of On Happiness: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century, edited by C Nelson, D Pike and G Ledvinka
Citation
Daly, AM, Not suffering, not melancholy: Review of On Happiness: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century, edited by C Nelson, D Pike and G Ledvinka, Sydney Review of Books ISSN 2201-8735 (2016) [Review Several Works]
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Official URL: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/on-happines...
Abstract
What is happiness? The word conjures sunshine, pleasure, expansiveness and possibility – and we all claim some knowledge and experience of happiness. Nonetheless, happiness, perhaps more than any other experience, is defined and delineated in the negative. Happiness is not suffering, not anguish, not absence or lack, not loneliness, not depression, not melancholy. That we do not in fact have grasp of a pure state, such as happiness, in isolation from its contraries illuminates something important about how our selves and our realities are structured. We are able to recognise it not only because it is already a part of our experiential repertoire but also because we are already familiar with its converse. This insight has direct implications for our experiences in general and for the experience of happiness in particular.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Review Several Works |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | suffering, happiness, psychology, philosophy, culture, sociology |
| Research Division: | Philosophy and Religious Studies |
| Research Group: | History and philosophy of specific fields |
| Research Field: | History of ideas |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in philosophy and religious studies |
| UTAS Author: | Daly, AM (Dr Anya Daly) |
| ID Code: | 148484 |
| Year Published: | 2016 |
| Deposited By: | Philosophy and Gender Studies |
| Deposited On: | 2022-01-13 |
| Last Modified: | 2022-04-08 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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