Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Utility

This is the seventh volume in the St. Andrews studies in philosophy and public affairs, and is subtitled 'happiness in philosophical and economic thought.' On the basis that human well-being has three main constituents, namely welfare, contentment and dignity, the book is divided into corresponding parts with twin essays by Anthony Kenny on philosophy and Charles Kenny on economics. There is a historical introduction about the philosophy of happiness from the ancients onwards and how happiness has been perceived throughout history. The final chapter discusses policies for happiness. Here there are a few gaps in the analysis, since no mention is made of the work done by the New Economics Foundation on well-being, and there is no reference to the major new work by Jonathan Porritt, even though there are other works cited dated 2006. It would also have been useful to discuss new progress indicators to replace GNP.