Fall 2014 Happiness Class Study Questions

Return to Happiness

SEP 4

1. What is the relationship between classical greek philosophical culture (from Pericles to Alexander) and traditional greek culture concerning happiness?

2. How does the Symposium represent Plato's view of happiness?

3. How does Aristotle alter Plato's view?

4. In what ways are the Hellenic schools (Stoics and Epicureans) continuing and changing the classical philosophical model?

5. What are some of the structural features of the Greek models of happiness?

SEP 9

1. How does Aristotle set up the problem of happiness? What are the key steps in the argument?

2. Critically evaluate Aristotle's view in light of criticisms developed in class.

3. What is the connection between our nature and the possibilities for happiness? Is human happiness part of a "plan" for humans?

SEP 11

1. How does Haidt contrast and evaluate the two main strategies for pursuing happiness (internal and external)?

2. What are some of the key happiness makers and unmakers in Haidt's view?

3. What does it mean to say that we have a "set point" for our happiness?

4. What is the difference between hedonic adaptation and the hedonic treadmill?

SEP 16

1. What does Schimmack conclude about: top down vs. bottom up theories of SWB, the relationship between PA and NA, and between cognitive and affective well being?

2. How do positive and negative affect appear in your experience? What relationships can you notice between them in your experience. Does this lead to any hypotheses about changing your experience (presumably to increase the ratio of PA/NA)?

3. What is a scientific theory? How does our phenomenal experience constitute evidence in relation to science?

SEP 18

1. What features and structures of the brain does Haidt highlight in this reading?

2. What should we expect or not expect from a theory of happiness or our experience of happiness given that we have brains of this sort?

SEP 23

1. Summarize major findings from Argyle on correlations between happiness and Age, Education, Social Class, Income, Marriage, Ethnicity, Employment, Leisure and Religion.

2. What generalizations, if any, stand out from these correlations and the methodological issues associated with them?

3. What methodological issues (limits) do happiness researchers face if they apply quantitative methods from the social sciences to understanding "happiness-makers" (demographic and otherwise)?

SEP 25

1. How do Diener and Suh explain the differences summarized in the World Values Study (p. 436)?

2. What methodological difficulties beset international comparisons of happiness?

3. What models have been proposed to explain national and cultural differences in general?

SEP 30

1. How is the Stoic worldview related to the specific philosophy in the Enchiridion?

2. What is the stoic counsel of happiness (consider various hypotheses)?

3. Do Stoics have good advice about happiness give what we have read from contemporary social science?

OCT 2

1. Identify principle doctrines of Epicureanism and their rationales, especially consider the role of virtue in hedonism and the rationale for the sort of hedonism Epicurus advocates.

2. Critically evaluate Epicureanism as a happiness strategy.

OCT 7

• no class to to administrative events.

OCT 9

1. What is negative visualization and how is it theorized as a strategy in happiness?

2. Is the "trichotomy of control" an innovation in Stoic theory? What problem does it address? Does it succeed?

3. Does Irvine responds successfully to the traditional criticisms of Stoics: that they their philosophy might lead peole to avoid attachment or involvement in the world?

OCT 14

1. What does the story of Perpetua and Felicitas tell us about early Christian ideals of happiness and about happiness in general?

2. How does the Roman culture of Horace and Virgil model happiness?

3. What is specifically radical about the Christian conception of happiness and how does it evolve in the 5th, 9th, and 13th centuries?