Jean-Pierre Poussou
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265383
- eISBN:
- 9780191760433
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265383.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter demonstrates that the idea of a ‘general crisis’ affecting the whole of Louis XVI's reign is unsustainable. This is particularly true of the French economy, where the influence of Ernest ...
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This chapter demonstrates that the idea of a ‘general crisis’ affecting the whole of Louis XVI's reign is unsustainable. This is particularly true of the French economy, where the influence of Ernest Labrousse has long dominated our understanding of the period. Far from experiencing a general economic downturn, which made 1789 a ‘revolution of misery’, the pattern of industrial and agricultural production and colonial trade was far more positive. Problems arose primarily from the failure of political reform, especially in fiscal matters, but they only took a dramatic turn for the worst after the summoning of the Assembly of Notables in the Spring of 1787.Less
This chapter demonstrates that the idea of a ‘general crisis’ affecting the whole of Louis XVI's reign is unsustainable. This is particularly true of the French economy, where the influence of Ernest Labrousse has long dominated our understanding of the period. Far from experiencing a general economic downturn, which made 1789 a ‘revolution of misery’, the pattern of industrial and agricultural production and colonial trade was far more positive. Problems arose primarily from the failure of political reform, especially in fiscal matters, but they only took a dramatic turn for the worst after the summoning of the Assembly of Notables in the Spring of 1787.
Frederick Neuhouser
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199542673
- eISBN:
- 9780191715402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542673.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter reconstructs Rousseau's account of why amour-propre is the principal source of the enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement that pervades human reality. The first ...
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This chapter reconstructs Rousseau's account of why amour-propre is the principal source of the enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement that pervades human reality. The first question to be addressed is how amour-propre helps make possible the evils mentioned above. The concern is not to explain why those evils are so widespread — why amour-propre so frequently gives rise to them — but merely to understand how the features of amour-propre outlined in the previous chapter make them possible. Implicit in this undertaking is the view that in the absence of amour-propre, these human evils would be non-existent or, at worst, extremely rare.Less
This chapter reconstructs Rousseau's account of why amour-propre is the principal source of the enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement that pervades human reality. The first question to be addressed is how amour-propre helps make possible the evils mentioned above. The concern is not to explain why those evils are so widespread — why amour-propre so frequently gives rise to them — but merely to understand how the features of amour-propre outlined in the previous chapter make them possible. Implicit in this undertaking is the view that in the absence of amour-propre, these human evils would be non-existent or, at worst, extremely rare.
John Kekes
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199546923
- eISBN:
- 9780191720109
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199546923.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter is about the possibility of living enjoyably in the face of adversity and contingency, without seeking consolation in religious or some version of secular faith. The key is to develop ...
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This chapter is about the possibility of living enjoyably in the face of adversity and contingency, without seeking consolation in religious or some version of secular faith. The key is to develop realism about the possibilities and limits of life, much as Madame Goesler, Hume, and Montaigne in their different ways have done. It is also to avoid going wrong in the ways Mishima, Cato, and Cellini have done. There are, of course, many other ways of living realistically and enjoyably, and many other ways of living miserably. The importance of literature for living well is that it allows us to reflect realistically on the possibilities and limits of our contingent circumstances.Less
This chapter is about the possibility of living enjoyably in the face of adversity and contingency, without seeking consolation in religious or some version of secular faith. The key is to develop realism about the possibilities and limits of life, much as Madame Goesler, Hume, and Montaigne in their different ways have done. It is also to avoid going wrong in the ways Mishima, Cato, and Cellini have done. There are, of course, many other ways of living realistically and enjoyably, and many other ways of living miserably. The importance of literature for living well is that it allows us to reflect realistically on the possibilities and limits of our contingent circumstances.
Geoff Harcourt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199298839
- eISBN:
- 9780191711480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298839.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
This chapter challenges us to delve into Samuelson's ideas from an eraser's point of view. When we observe carefully, we find Samuelson saying: ‘Contemplate two alternative and discordant systems. ...
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This chapter challenges us to delve into Samuelson's ideas from an eraser's point of view. When we observe carefully, we find Samuelson saying: ‘Contemplate two alternative and discordant systems. Write down one. Now transform by taking an eraser and rubbing it out. Then fill in the other one. Voila! You have completed your transformation algorithm’. Here is a question and Samuelson's answer on this idea applied to Marx's transformation problem: ‘The ‘algorithmic’ transformation from the ‘value’ model to the ‘price’ model (or vice versa), is truly a process of rejection of the former and replacement by the latter’. Samuelson presents the slam dunk version of what he considered to be the truth of the transformation problem, which as it turned out is an attack on Marx.Less
This chapter challenges us to delve into Samuelson's ideas from an eraser's point of view. When we observe carefully, we find Samuelson saying: ‘Contemplate two alternative and discordant systems. Write down one. Now transform by taking an eraser and rubbing it out. Then fill in the other one. Voila! You have completed your transformation algorithm’. Here is a question and Samuelson's answer on this idea applied to Marx's transformation problem: ‘The ‘algorithmic’ transformation from the ‘value’ model to the ‘price’ model (or vice versa), is truly a process of rejection of the former and replacement by the latter’. Samuelson presents the slam dunk version of what he considered to be the truth of the transformation problem, which as it turned out is an attack on Marx.
Douglas Kerr
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198123705
- eISBN:
- 9780191671609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198123705.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
While at the Keswick convention, Wilfred Owen felt doubt and unsure about how Christian attitudes addressed instances of social misery. The doctrine of original sin was highlighted by Evangelical ...
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While at the Keswick convention, Wilfred Owen felt doubt and unsure about how Christian attitudes addressed instances of social misery. The doctrine of original sin was highlighted by Evangelical theology in such a way that encouraged suffering. Suffering was something that Evangelicals urged to be submitted to since this was viewed to be the unavoidable consequence of original sin. Susan Owen attempted to instill certain values in her son that involved how passive endurance should be utilized in dealing with unhappiness. One of the fundamental concepts that Owen learned throughout his experience as assistant was how particular things that could not be changed simply had to be endured.Less
While at the Keswick convention, Wilfred Owen felt doubt and unsure about how Christian attitudes addressed instances of social misery. The doctrine of original sin was highlighted by Evangelical theology in such a way that encouraged suffering. Suffering was something that Evangelicals urged to be submitted to since this was viewed to be the unavoidable consequence of original sin. Susan Owen attempted to instill certain values in her son that involved how passive endurance should be utilized in dealing with unhappiness. One of the fundamental concepts that Owen learned throughout his experience as assistant was how particular things that could not be changed simply had to be endured.
Pietro Pucci
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781501700613
- eISBN:
- 9781501704055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700613.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines the spiritual misery of human life in Euripides's poetry. In Troades, Hecuba frames the whole glorious and painful adventure of Troy as the song that the poets will sing. Hecuba ...
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This chapter examines the spiritual misery of human life in Euripides's poetry. In Troades, Hecuba frames the whole glorious and painful adventure of Troy as the song that the poets will sing. Hecuba speaks in harmony with epic poetry and borrows from it the power to reduce the senseless and manifold devastation of the world to a sensible and simple image. For the proud aristocratic characters such as Polyxena, Cassandra, and Hector, sacrifices, defeats, and heroic death are sources and themes for songs immortalizing their glory. This chapter considers how the prospect of immortality through song gives sense and meaning to the violence that has been shown on stage. It also discusses Euripides's belief, implied in Troades, that living your life in order to warrant a great postmortem celebration is meaningless.Less
This chapter examines the spiritual misery of human life in Euripides's poetry. In Troades, Hecuba frames the whole glorious and painful adventure of Troy as the song that the poets will sing. Hecuba speaks in harmony with epic poetry and borrows from it the power to reduce the senseless and manifold devastation of the world to a sensible and simple image. For the proud aristocratic characters such as Polyxena, Cassandra, and Hector, sacrifices, defeats, and heroic death are sources and themes for songs immortalizing their glory. This chapter considers how the prospect of immortality through song gives sense and meaning to the violence that has been shown on stage. It also discusses Euripides's belief, implied in Troades, that living your life in order to warrant a great postmortem celebration is meaningless.
John Beer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199574018
- eISBN:
- 9780191723100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199574018.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Development of the relationship with Sara Hutchinson. Coleridge's journey to Malta and his reaction to John Wordsworth's death at sea. His ‘involuntary jealousy’ at Wordsworth's unlimited access to ...
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Development of the relationship with Sara Hutchinson. Coleridge's journey to Malta and his reaction to John Wordsworth's death at sea. His ‘involuntary jealousy’ at Wordsworth's unlimited access to Sara, coupled with unbridled admiration of his poetic achievement, particularly in the autobiographical poetry leading to the 1805 Prelude. His misery on realizing that his love for Sara cannot reach a happy conclusion. The after‐life in poetry of his desolate love.Less
Development of the relationship with Sara Hutchinson. Coleridge's journey to Malta and his reaction to John Wordsworth's death at sea. His ‘involuntary jealousy’ at Wordsworth's unlimited access to Sara, coupled with unbridled admiration of his poetic achievement, particularly in the autobiographical poetry leading to the 1805 Prelude. His misery on realizing that his love for Sara cannot reach a happy conclusion. The after‐life in poetry of his desolate love.
Carol Graham
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691169460
- eISBN:
- 9781400884971
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691169460.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The Declaration of Independence states that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these is the pursuit of happiness. But is happiness available equally to everyone in ...
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The Declaration of Independence states that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these is the pursuit of happiness. But is happiness available equally to everyone in America today? How about elsewhere in the world? This book draws on cutting-edge research linking income inequality with well-being to show how the widening prosperity gap has led to rising inequality in people's beliefs, hopes, and aspirations. For the United States and other developed countries, the high costs of being poor are most evident not in material deprivation but rather in stress, insecurity, and lack of hope. The result is an optimism gap between rich and poor that, if left unchecked, could lead to an increasingly divided society. The book reveals how people who do not believe in their own futures are unlikely to invest in them, and how the consequences can range from job instability and poor education to greater mortality rates, failed marriages, and higher rates of incarceration. The book explains why the least optimistic people in America are poor whites, not poor blacks or Hispanics. This book highlights the importance of well-being measures in identifying and monitoring trends in life satisfaction and optimism—and misery and despair—and demonstrates how hope and happiness can lead to improved economic outcomes.Less
The Declaration of Independence states that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these is the pursuit of happiness. But is happiness available equally to everyone in America today? How about elsewhere in the world? This book draws on cutting-edge research linking income inequality with well-being to show how the widening prosperity gap has led to rising inequality in people's beliefs, hopes, and aspirations. For the United States and other developed countries, the high costs of being poor are most evident not in material deprivation but rather in stress, insecurity, and lack of hope. The result is an optimism gap between rich and poor that, if left unchecked, could lead to an increasingly divided society. The book reveals how people who do not believe in their own futures are unlikely to invest in them, and how the consequences can range from job instability and poor education to greater mortality rates, failed marriages, and higher rates of incarceration. The book explains why the least optimistic people in America are poor whites, not poor blacks or Hispanics. This book highlights the importance of well-being measures in identifying and monitoring trends in life satisfaction and optimism—and misery and despair—and demonstrates how hope and happiness can lead to improved economic outcomes.
Nina L. Khrushcheva
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108866
- eISBN:
- 9780300148244
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108866.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Vladimir Nabokov's “Western choice”—his exile to the West after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution—allowed him to take a crucial literary journey, leaving the closed nineteenth-century Russian culture ...
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Vladimir Nabokov's “Western choice”—his exile to the West after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution—allowed him to take a crucial literary journey, leaving the closed nineteenth-century Russian culture behind and arriving in the extreme openness of twentieth-century America. This book offers the hypothesis that because of this journey, the works of Russian-turned-American Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) are highly relevant to the political transformation under way in Russia today. The author of this book—a Russian living in America—finds in Nabokov's novels a useful guide for Russia's integration into the globalized world. Now one of Nabokov's “Western” characters herself, the author discusses the cultural and social realities of contemporary Russia that were foreseen half a century earlier. In Pale Fire; Ada, or Ardor; Pnin; and other works, Nabokov reinterpreted the traditions of Russian fiction, shifting emphasis from personal misery and communal life to the notion of forging one's own “happy” destiny. In the twenty-first century Russia faces a similar challenge, and Nabokov's work reveals how skills may be acquired to cope with the advent of democracy, capitalism, and open borders.Less
Vladimir Nabokov's “Western choice”—his exile to the West after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution—allowed him to take a crucial literary journey, leaving the closed nineteenth-century Russian culture behind and arriving in the extreme openness of twentieth-century America. This book offers the hypothesis that because of this journey, the works of Russian-turned-American Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) are highly relevant to the political transformation under way in Russia today. The author of this book—a Russian living in America—finds in Nabokov's novels a useful guide for Russia's integration into the globalized world. Now one of Nabokov's “Western” characters herself, the author discusses the cultural and social realities of contemporary Russia that were foreseen half a century earlier. In Pale Fire; Ada, or Ardor; Pnin; and other works, Nabokov reinterpreted the traditions of Russian fiction, shifting emphasis from personal misery and communal life to the notion of forging one's own “happy” destiny. In the twenty-first century Russia faces a similar challenge, and Nabokov's work reveals how skills may be acquired to cope with the advent of democracy, capitalism, and open borders.
Judith Chazin-Bennahum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195399332
- eISBN:
- 9780199897025
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195399332.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This chapter introduces the short journal memoir that Blum kept after he enlisted in the army as an English interpreter for a British division in World War I. It discloses the wording of the Croix de ...
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This chapter introduces the short journal memoir that Blum kept after he enlisted in the army as an English interpreter for a British division in World War I. It discloses the wording of the Croix de Guerre award that Blum received after the war honoring his courage and fearlessness. Many of Blum’s artist and writer friends joined the war effort and several were injured and died. The chapter discusses Blum’s letters to friends during the war that recount his fears and the horrors of the war experience. It also refers to Blum’s day-to-day journal recounting the boring and sometimes senseless activities that soldiers endured during the war. The journal describes how they were shipped back and forth to Rouen and Le Havre, without purpose, and details the superb accommodations of English soldiers and the poor conditions under which the Belgian soldiers fared. Blum’s musings on the youthful soldiers and their dismay and confusion are also revealed. Searching daily for comfortable places to sleep seemed to occupy much of the young men’s time. Above all, the text explores the events that war seems to engender and leaves off before the true violence and carnage of trench warfare. It also stops short of René’s discovery that his brother Marcel suffered terribly as a prisoner of war.Less
This chapter introduces the short journal memoir that Blum kept after he enlisted in the army as an English interpreter for a British division in World War I. It discloses the wording of the Croix de Guerre award that Blum received after the war honoring his courage and fearlessness. Many of Blum’s artist and writer friends joined the war effort and several were injured and died. The chapter discusses Blum’s letters to friends during the war that recount his fears and the horrors of the war experience. It also refers to Blum’s day-to-day journal recounting the boring and sometimes senseless activities that soldiers endured during the war. The journal describes how they were shipped back and forth to Rouen and Le Havre, without purpose, and details the superb accommodations of English soldiers and the poor conditions under which the Belgian soldiers fared. Blum’s musings on the youthful soldiers and their dismay and confusion are also revealed. Searching daily for comfortable places to sleep seemed to occupy much of the young men’s time. Above all, the text explores the events that war seems to engender and leaves off before the true violence and carnage of trench warfare. It also stops short of René’s discovery that his brother Marcel suffered terribly as a prisoner of war.
Jean-Luc Nancy
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823256105
- eISBN:
- 9780823261314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256105.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
In chapter 1, Nancy resituates this debate on identity by recalling the economic and social factors playing in the question of identity and national identity. H argues that the current questions on ...
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In chapter 1, Nancy resituates this debate on identity by recalling the economic and social factors playing in the question of identity and national identity. H argues that the current questions on identity are motivated by the socio-economic misery. In such a context, one is tempted to return to a micro-identity, itself the product of an exclusion from a national identity. Nancy makes the point that it is not the French identity that is threatened (as the Sarkozy government implied by that project of a debate on “national identity”); rather, one witnesses a disintegration of identity, a “de-identification of what is called ‘civilization’.” It is globalization that puts all identities into question, remixing them and recasting them. Traditional identities are thus exposed to a transformation, because they are caught in a global economic system that disrupts them.Less
In chapter 1, Nancy resituates this debate on identity by recalling the economic and social factors playing in the question of identity and national identity. H argues that the current questions on identity are motivated by the socio-economic misery. In such a context, one is tempted to return to a micro-identity, itself the product of an exclusion from a national identity. Nancy makes the point that it is not the French identity that is threatened (as the Sarkozy government implied by that project of a debate on “national identity”); rather, one witnesses a disintegration of identity, a “de-identification of what is called ‘civilization’.” It is globalization that puts all identities into question, remixing them and recasting them. Traditional identities are thus exposed to a transformation, because they are caught in a global economic system that disrupts them.
Jesse Rosenthal
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691196640
- eISBN:
- 9781400883738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691196640.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter demonstrates how literary theory bears the mark of the ethical debates of the nineteenth century. Through a reading of Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) and Charles Dickens's Hard ...
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This chapter demonstrates how literary theory bears the mark of the ethical debates of the nineteenth century. Through a reading of Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) and Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854), as well as a discussion of a number of classic narrative theorists, it shows how narrative theory, underwritten by a principle of forward compulsion through the text, reiterates the position of the intuitionist thinkers of the Victorian period. Both novels are examples of what people have come to call the “industrial novel,” or the “social problem novel”: a set of novels that focus on the condition of the working class. There is a strongly felt, if sometimes vague, ethical message in these novels' focus on the human misery inherent in capitalism: a general sense that it is necessary to treat other humans by some other standard than the bottom line. The chapter then considers the philosophical arguments of Bernard Williams—famous for his use of small narratives as philosophical argument—and suggests how narrative form, having subsumed the tenets of intuitionism, itself became an effective argumentative practice.Less
This chapter demonstrates how literary theory bears the mark of the ethical debates of the nineteenth century. Through a reading of Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) and Charles Dickens's Hard Times (1854), as well as a discussion of a number of classic narrative theorists, it shows how narrative theory, underwritten by a principle of forward compulsion through the text, reiterates the position of the intuitionist thinkers of the Victorian period. Both novels are examples of what people have come to call the “industrial novel,” or the “social problem novel”: a set of novels that focus on the condition of the working class. There is a strongly felt, if sometimes vague, ethical message in these novels' focus on the human misery inherent in capitalism: a general sense that it is necessary to treat other humans by some other standard than the bottom line. The chapter then considers the philosophical arguments of Bernard Williams—famous for his use of small narratives as philosophical argument—and suggests how narrative form, having subsumed the tenets of intuitionism, itself became an effective argumentative practice.
Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee, and George Ward
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691196336
- eISBN:
- 9780691196954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691196336.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This chapter argues that both physical and mental health are hugely important for an enjoyable life. Illnesses of either type can be devastating. But the chapter asserts that mental illness explains ...
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This chapter argues that both physical and mental health are hugely important for an enjoyable life. Illnesses of either type can be devastating. But the chapter asserts that mental illness explains more of the misery in society than physical illness does, and more than either poverty or unemployment. It also explains more of the variation in life-satisfaction. Moreover, mental illness in one generation is frequently transmitted to the next. But many existing studies of life-satisfaction ignore mental illness. Implicitly they assume that misery and mental illness are the same thing. However, the chapter argues that this is quite wrong. Many things can cause low life-satisfaction, some of them directly and others indirectly by causing mental illness. But there are also sources of mental illness that are uncorrelated with any of the obvious external causes like poverty, unemployment, separation, or bereavement.Less
This chapter argues that both physical and mental health are hugely important for an enjoyable life. Illnesses of either type can be devastating. But the chapter asserts that mental illness explains more of the misery in society than physical illness does, and more than either poverty or unemployment. It also explains more of the variation in life-satisfaction. Moreover, mental illness in one generation is frequently transmitted to the next. But many existing studies of life-satisfaction ignore mental illness. Implicitly they assume that misery and mental illness are the same thing. However, the chapter argues that this is quite wrong. Many things can cause low life-satisfaction, some of them directly and others indirectly by causing mental illness. But there are also sources of mental illness that are uncorrelated with any of the obvious external causes like poverty, unemployment, separation, or bereavement.
Andrew E. Clark, Sarah Flèche, Richard Layard, Nattavudh Powdthavee, and George Ward
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691196336
- eISBN:
- 9780691196954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691196336.003.0016
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Behavioural Economics
This chapter demonstrates that policy analysis should be based on happiness as the measure of benefit (except where traditional methods actually work). It argues that this should be generally applied ...
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This chapter demonstrates that policy analysis should be based on happiness as the measure of benefit (except where traditional methods actually work). It argues that this should be generally applied throughout the public services and by nongovernment organizations (NGOs). The chapter offers four key proposals. The first is that the goal of governments should be to increase the happiness of the people and, especially, to reduce misery. Where willingness to pay is not a feasible measure of benefit, governments should develop new methods of policy analysis based on point-years of happiness as the measure of benefit. All policy change should be evaluated through controlled experiments in which the impact on happiness is routinely measured. A major objective of social science (and of its funders) should be to throw light on the causes of happiness, and how it can be enhanced—and at what cost.Less
This chapter demonstrates that policy analysis should be based on happiness as the measure of benefit (except where traditional methods actually work). It argues that this should be generally applied throughout the public services and by nongovernment organizations (NGOs). The chapter offers four key proposals. The first is that the goal of governments should be to increase the happiness of the people and, especially, to reduce misery. Where willingness to pay is not a feasible measure of benefit, governments should develop new methods of policy analysis based on point-years of happiness as the measure of benefit. All policy change should be evaluated through controlled experiments in which the impact on happiness is routinely measured. A major objective of social science (and of its funders) should be to throw light on the causes of happiness, and how it can be enhanced—and at what cost.
Melissa L. Caldwell
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262843
- eISBN:
- 9780520947870
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262843.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter addresses why Russians engage in unpleasant, labor-intensive, and increasingly expensive activities, such as gardening and provisioning, while claiming that they derive deep personal, ...
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This chapter addresses why Russians engage in unpleasant, labor-intensive, and increasingly expensive activities, such as gardening and provisioning, while claiming that they derive deep personal, and often spiritual or soulful, satisfaction from them. The value of individualized experiences for overcoming the apparent miseries of dacha life was made apparent in Valentina Uspenskaia's response. Valentina's invocation of soulfulness clarifies an important detail about the ways in which seemingly paradoxical qualities of misery, hardship, contentedness, and even pleasure can coexist. The pleasures of the simple life extend beyond the immediate confines of the dacha cottage and its garden, and into the surrounding meadows and forests, as residents in dacha communities find numerous ways to pass the lazy days of summer. Furthermore, the chapter emphasizes the overlapping and multiply transecting elements and dimensions of temporality, place, work, leisure, pleasure, and suffering that are immanent in the organic life.Less
This chapter addresses why Russians engage in unpleasant, labor-intensive, and increasingly expensive activities, such as gardening and provisioning, while claiming that they derive deep personal, and often spiritual or soulful, satisfaction from them. The value of individualized experiences for overcoming the apparent miseries of dacha life was made apparent in Valentina Uspenskaia's response. Valentina's invocation of soulfulness clarifies an important detail about the ways in which seemingly paradoxical qualities of misery, hardship, contentedness, and even pleasure can coexist. The pleasures of the simple life extend beyond the immediate confines of the dacha cottage and its garden, and into the surrounding meadows and forests, as residents in dacha communities find numerous ways to pass the lazy days of summer. Furthermore, the chapter emphasizes the overlapping and multiply transecting elements and dimensions of temporality, place, work, leisure, pleasure, and suffering that are immanent in the organic life.
Amber Jamilla Musser
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479807031
- eISBN:
- 9781479845491
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479807031.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
This chapter makes the question of affective labor explicit as it works through Maureen Catbagan’s video series Crush (2010–2012), which features a woman in high heels crushing plastic toys. ...
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This chapter makes the question of affective labor explicit as it works through Maureen Catbagan’s video series Crush (2010–2012), which features a woman in high heels crushing plastic toys. Catbagan’s decision to feature a white woman in this critique of domestic labor brings to light the pervasiveness of discourses of white feminine misery as read through Joan Riviere’s “Womanliness as Masquerade,” while also highlighting the object-centered nature of fetishism. Catbagan’s project asks viewers to read for race and sensuality in other modes because their Filipino identity is rendered invisible. This reorientation of representation produces brown jouissance in relation to mimesis and virality, thereby upending questions of value and commodification.Less
This chapter makes the question of affective labor explicit as it works through Maureen Catbagan’s video series Crush (2010–2012), which features a woman in high heels crushing plastic toys. Catbagan’s decision to feature a white woman in this critique of domestic labor brings to light the pervasiveness of discourses of white feminine misery as read through Joan Riviere’s “Womanliness as Masquerade,” while also highlighting the object-centered nature of fetishism. Catbagan’s project asks viewers to read for race and sensuality in other modes because their Filipino identity is rendered invisible. This reorientation of representation produces brown jouissance in relation to mimesis and virality, thereby upending questions of value and commodification.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847424099
- eISBN:
- 9781447301981
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847424099.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy
Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the twenty-first century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling ...
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Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the twenty-first century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling among the social evils of his time, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation initiated a major consultation among leading thinkers, activists and commentators, as well as the wider public. The findings have now been brought together in this fascinating book. Individual chapters range across the political spectrum but the book also reports the results from a web survey and consultation with groups whose voices are less often heard. The results suggest that while some evils — like poverty — endure as undisputed causes of social harm, more recent sources of social misery, such as an alleged rise in selfish consumerism and a perceived decline in personal responsibility and family commitment, attract controversy.Less
Which underlying problems pose the greatest threat to British society in the twenty-first century? A hundred years after its philanthropist founder identified poverty, alcohol, drugs and gambling among the social evils of his time, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation initiated a major consultation among leading thinkers, activists and commentators, as well as the wider public. The findings have now been brought together in this fascinating book. Individual chapters range across the political spectrum but the book also reports the results from a web survey and consultation with groups whose voices are less often heard. The results suggest that while some evils — like poverty — endure as undisputed causes of social harm, more recent sources of social misery, such as an alleged rise in selfish consumerism and a perceived decline in personal responsibility and family commitment, attract controversy.
Arlette Farge
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300176735
- eISBN:
- 9780300180213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300176735.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
The judicial archives reveal a fragmented world. The events are mundane and their occurrence beyond commonplace. The characters are ordinary and the documentary record of them is fragmentary. This ...
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The judicial archives reveal a fragmented world. The events are mundane and their occurrence beyond commonplace. The characters are ordinary and the documentary record of them is fragmentary. This chapter describes the pleasure at discovering how in these tatters of lives and scraps of disputes, found in bulk, human defiance and human misery can be found.Less
The judicial archives reveal a fragmented world. The events are mundane and their occurrence beyond commonplace. The characters are ordinary and the documentary record of them is fragmentary. This chapter describes the pleasure at discovering how in these tatters of lives and scraps of disputes, found in bulk, human defiance and human misery can be found.
Susanne Kord
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781999334000
- eISBN:
- 9781800342491
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781999334000.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter looks at the penultimate scene of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, which shows the bird's eye shot of young Cole getting in the car and a close-up of his eyes as they follow a plane. It ...
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This chapter looks at the penultimate scene of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, which shows the bird's eye shot of young Cole getting in the car and a close-up of his eyes as they follow a plane. It discusses how the mysterious plane scene seems to have bothered viewers a great deal and kept coming up in interviews with Gilliam. It also mentions a scene in 12 Monkeys that seems to offer a final comment on the free will versus determinism dilemma. The chapter analyses how humanity's survival must be purchased with the coin of human misery stretching far into the post-apocalyptic future, which is a concept that is made to be accepted in 12 Monkeys. It mentions Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods from 2012, in which two dying teenagers respond whether it is acceptable to have a world in which humans are capable of the deliberate slaughter of others.Less
This chapter looks at the penultimate scene of Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, which shows the bird's eye shot of young Cole getting in the car and a close-up of his eyes as they follow a plane. It discusses how the mysterious plane scene seems to have bothered viewers a great deal and kept coming up in interviews with Gilliam. It also mentions a scene in 12 Monkeys that seems to offer a final comment on the free will versus determinism dilemma. The chapter analyses how humanity's survival must be purchased with the coin of human misery stretching far into the post-apocalyptic future, which is a concept that is made to be accepted in 12 Monkeys. It mentions Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods from 2012, in which two dying teenagers respond whether it is acceptable to have a world in which humans are capable of the deliberate slaughter of others.
Simon Dickie
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226146188
- eISBN:
- 9780226146201
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226146201.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter examines jestbooks during the mid-eighteenth century, a period that historians of popular culture have often argued to be marked by humor of protest. The question the author asks, ...
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This chapter examines jestbooks during the mid-eighteenth century, a period that historians of popular culture have often argued to be marked by humor of protest. The question the author asks, however, is “What did people laugh at in everyday situations—in streets, coffeehouses, and polite assemblies?” The answer to this question is a frank delight in human misery. The people laughed at disability, hunger, domestic violence, and illness, mocking them as a way of appreciating their superiority and good fortune. This was the purpose of British jestbooks. Throughout the rest of the chapter, the author shows how the content of these jestbooks was either changed or unchanged through time. How did women receive these jokes? What factors brought about the change in the nature of this brand of humor?Less
This chapter examines jestbooks during the mid-eighteenth century, a period that historians of popular culture have often argued to be marked by humor of protest. The question the author asks, however, is “What did people laugh at in everyday situations—in streets, coffeehouses, and polite assemblies?” The answer to this question is a frank delight in human misery. The people laughed at disability, hunger, domestic violence, and illness, mocking them as a way of appreciating their superiority and good fortune. This was the purpose of British jestbooks. Throughout the rest of the chapter, the author shows how the content of these jestbooks was either changed or unchanged through time. How did women receive these jokes? What factors brought about the change in the nature of this brand of humor?
