Happy-People-Pills For All (eBook)

Mark Walker (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2013
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-118-35733-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Happy-People-Pills for All explores current theories of happiness while demonstrating the need to develop advanced pharmacological agents for the enhancement of our capacity for happiness and wellbeing.

• Presents the first detailed exploration of the enhancement of happiness
• A controversial yet rigorous argument that demonstrates the moral imperative for the development and mass distribution of 'happy-pills', to promote the wellbeing of the individual and society
• Brings together the philosophy, psychology and biology of happiness
• Maps the development of the next generation of positive mood pharmacology
• Offers a corrective to contemporary accounts of happiness

Mark Walker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at New Mexico State University, where he occupies the Richard L. Hedden Endowed Chair in Advanced Philosophical Studies. Dr. Walker also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Evolution and Technology and on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Inhalt

Cover???????????????????????? 1
Title Page?????????????????????????????????? 5
Copyright???????????????????????????????? 6
Contents?????????????????????????????? 9
Acknowledgments???????????????????????????????????????????? 11
Chapter 1 Introductory?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 15
1.1 The Ends: Greater Happiness 15
1.2 The Means: Pharmacology 17
1.3 The Biological Basis of Happiness 20
1.4 Therapy versus Enhancement 24
1.5 Signposts 30
Notes 31
References 32
Chapter 2 What is Living and What is Dead in Brave New World?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 33
2.1 Introductory 33
2.2 Brief Summary of Brave New World 34
2.3 Brave New World and Bioconservatives 40
2.4 Alcohol Stunting, Indoctrination, and Other Pernicious Means of Soul Crafting 43
2.5 Soma 47
2.6 A Tragic Dilemma or a False Dilemma? 51
Notes 53
References 54
Chapter 3 What Do We Mean by `Happiness'????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 55
3.1 Two Senses of 'Happiness´: Wellbeing and a Psychological State 56
3.2 Affective Theories of Happiness 57
3.3 Cognitive Accounts of Happiness 58
3.4 Counterexamples to Monism About Happiness 63
3.5 Methodological Remarks 67
3.6 Sensory Hedonism 73
3.7 Not Life Satisfactionism 75
3.8 Folk Psychology 81
Notes 82
References 84
Chapter 4 The Elements of the Good Life: It is a Very Big List?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 86
4.1 Three Theories of the Good Life 87
4.2 The Method of Difference 89
4.3 Refutation of Hedonism 90
4.4 Refutation of Perfectionism 93
4.5 A Very Big Objective List 94
4.6 Desire Satisfaction and the Big Objective List 96
4.7 Objections to the Big Objective List 99
4.8 Objections to the Method of Difference 102
4.9 Inventory and Indexing 106
Notes 107
References 111
Chapter 5 Wellbeing and Virtue?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 114
5.1 Gyges 'Ring 116
5.2 Moral Virtue 117
5.3 The Method of Difference 118
5.4 The Sympathy Test 121
5.5 Upright, Unscrupulous, and Non-virtuous 125
5.6 The Immoralist Challenge 128
Notes 131
References 132
Chapter 6 Happiness Promotes Perfection???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 134
6.1 Huxley's Dilemma 135
6.2 Happiness Causes Achievement: the Common-Sense Case 138
6.3 Happiness Causes Achievement: Social Science Research 141
6.4 Measuring Happiness 143
6.5 Effect Size 147
6.6 Correlation Studies 148
6.7 Longitudinal and Laboratory Studies 150
6.8 A Causal Model: Broaden and Build 152
6.9 Why Don't People in the Brave New World Achieve More? 154
6.10 Can We Be Too Happy? 155
Notes 162
References 165
Chapter 7 Happy Pharmacology?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 169
7.1 Heritability Measures 169
7.2 Genetics of Happiness 172
7.3 Environmental Influences on Happiness 176
7.4 PGD and Genetic Technologies 179
7.5 Research Proposal: Happy-People-Pills 180
7.6 Antidepressants: the Healy Study 184
7.7 The Efficacy of Antidepressants on Healthy Volunteers 186
7.8 Side Effects of Antidepressants on Healthy Volunteers 191
7.9 Open-Source Mood Enhancement 192
Notes 195
References 197
Chapter 8 Arguments for Happy-People-Pills?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 201
8.1 Autonomy 201
8.2 Individual Wellbeing 208
8.3 Additive Wellbeing 213
8.4 Multiplicative Wellbeing: Virtue and Pro-social Behavior 215
Notes 217
References 218
Chapter 9 Ethical Objections?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 220
9.1 Emotional Inappropriateness 220
9.2 Instrumentalization 222
9.3 False Happiness 226
9.4 Inauthenticity 230
9.5 Loss of Identity 235
9.6 Too Easy 239
9.7 Just Distribution 241
Notes 244
References 245
Chapter 10 Happy-People-Pills and Public Policy???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 247
10.1 Liberty 247
10.2 Justice 251
10.3 The Liberty Versus the Justice Argument 254
10.4 Health Side Effects and Policy 255
10.5 A Social Experiment 260
10.6 An Apollo Push 267
10.7 Release the Hounds of Corporate Greed 275
10.8 Liberty and the Duty to Take Happy-People-Pills? 278
10.9 Concluding Unscientific Postscript 279
Notes 281
References 283
Index???????????????????????? 287

Rezensionen

"The philosophical portions of the book are good enough,
and I recommend Happy-People-Pills for All if you are
interested in a fun "what-if" discussion."
(PsycCRITIQUES, 10 February 2014)

"Summing Up: Recommended. With reservations.
General readers." (Choice, 1 January 2014)

"A fascinating and provocative argument, beautifully made.
This book challenges everything you believe about who deserves to
be happy, and why."

--Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University, Author of the
bestseller Stumbling on Happiness

"A game-changing contribution to philosophical debates about
happiness. Its arguments are ambitious, novel, and philosophically
focused and its discussion wide-ranging."

--Nicholas Agar, Victoria University of
Wellington, Author of Humanity's End: Why We Should Reject
Radical Enhancement

"Happy-People-Pills is a great examination of the
increasingly contentious issue of modifying our bodies and our
moods through pharmacology. Laying out in precise detail the
arguments for and against, Walker explains the importance of
happiness for health, life, and love and gives a powerful case for
using chemical technology to make more of it."

--Patrick Hopkins, Millsaps College, Author of Sex/Machine:
Readings in Culture, Gender, and Technology

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.2.2013
• Reihe/Serie: Blackwell Public Philosophy Series
• Reihe/Serie: Blackwell Public Philosophy Series
• Reihe/Serie: Blackwell Public Philosophy Series
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Medizinethik
• Themenwelt: Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Geschichte / Ethik der Medizin
• Schlagworte: Bioethics & Medical Ethics • Bioethik, Medizinethik • Medical Science • Medizin • Medizinethik • Philosophie • Philosophy • Philosophy, psychology, biology of happiness, bioethics, mood enhancement, happy pharmacology • Psychopharmacology • Psychopharmakologie
• ISBN-10: 1-118-35733-7 / 1118357337
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-35733-0 / 9781118357330