Happy-People-Pills For All - Softcover

Walker, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1118357477 ISBN 13: 9781118357477

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013

Synopsis

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

About this title

From the Back Cover

Almost everyone seeks to achieve happiness in their lives, yet the thought of a pharmacological enhancement to our ability to be happy makes most people recoil in horror. Why is this? Happy-People-Pills for All explores the latest theories and debates on what it means to be “happy” while addressing the prospects for advanced pharmacological agents to enhance our capacity for happiness and wellbeing. As distinguished from “happy pills” (drugs that distort cognition), future “happy-people-pills” will mimic the positive emotional states of the hyperthymic temperament. Noting that contemporary social science research supports the view that happiness promotes achievement in the ‘higher’ endeavors of humanity—including work, love and virtue—this provocative text reveals how happy-people-pills could greatly benefit individuals in achieving these same goals. Moral and legal issues are also addressed, including the quandary of the government’s role in individual welfare—whether to be involved in the development and promotion of bio-happiness or to allow such pharmacological agents to be developed in the private sector. Original and thought-provoking, Happy-People-Pills for All offers illuminating insights into the possibility of a panacea for the enhancement of happiness in our everyday lives.

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1118357477
• ISBN 13: 9781118357477
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296