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Western Historical Traditions of Well-Being

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The Pursuit of Human Well-Being

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief historical overview of Western philosophical views about well-being from the eighth century before the Common Era to the middle of the twentieth century. We explain different understandings of the concept of well-being, including our preferred understanding of well-being as the subjective states and objective conditions that make our lives go well for us. Although this review is necessarily incomplete, we discuss some of the most salient and influential contributions to our subject. To that end, we cover some key views from ancient Greece, including the aristocratic values that were considered central to leading a good life, notions of personal and more expansive harmony as they key to well-being, and the idea that the experience of pleasure is all we should really care about. We also explain some of the major religious conceptions of the good life and their progression through the Middle Ages and beyond. We further consider more recent secular conceptions of well-being, including several views on the importance of personal and public happiness. Finally, we discuss views to the effect that happiness is not enough for the good life and that we should strive for loftier goals.

What is the highest of all the goods achievable in action? ….

most people … call it happiness, …

But they disagree about what happiness is …(Aristotle 1934)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

  2. Department of Philosophy, California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Daniel Weijers

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  1. Alex C. Michalos
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  2. Daniel Weijers
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Correspondence to Alex C. Michalos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Richard J. Estes

  2. Pamplin College of Business Department of Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy

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Michalos, A.C., Weijers, D. (2017). Western Historical Traditions of Well-Being. In: Estes, R., Sirgy, M. (eds) The Pursuit of Human Well-Being. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39101-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39101-4_2

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