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Happiness, democracy, and the cooperative movement : the radical utilitarianism of William Thompson / Mark J. Kaswan.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: SUNY series in new political sciencePublisher: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2014Description: 1 online resourceContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781438452050
  • 1438452055
  • 9781438452043
  • 1438452047
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Happiness, democracy, and the cooperative movement.DDC classification:
  • 320.01/9 23
LOC classification:
  • BJ1481 .K35 2014eb
Other classification:
  • online - EBSCO
Online resources:
Contents:
What is happiness? -- The two faces of happiness: a brief history -- Between pleasure and well-being: Bentham -- William Thompson's social happiness -- The politics of happiness -- Happiness and utility -- The politics of happiness and democratic principles -- From theory to practice: cooperatives, happiness and democratic social change -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- Appendix 1. Laws and objects of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, adopted 1844 -- Appendix 2. Statement on the co-operative identity -- Notes -- References.
Summary: Examines the political significance of ideas about happiness through the work of utilitarian philosophers William Thompson and Jeremy Bentham. Happiness is political. The way we think about happiness affects what we do, how we relate to other people and the world around us, our moral principles, and even our ideas about how society should be organized. Utilitarianism, a political theory based on hedonistic and individualistic ideas of happiness, has been dominated for more than two-hundred years by its founder, Jeremy Bentham. In Happiness, Democracy, and the Cooperative Movement, Mark J. Kaswan examines the work of William Thompson, a friend of Bentham's who nonetheless offers a very different utilitarian philosophy and political theory based on a different conception of happiness, but whose work has been largely overlooked. Kaswan reveals the importance of our ideas about happiness for our understanding of the basic principles and nature of democracy, its role in society and its character as a social institution. In what is the closest examination of Thompson's political theory to date, Kaswan moves from philosophy to theory to practice, starting with conceptions of happiness before moving to theories of utility, then to democratic theory, and finally to practice in the first detailed account of how Thompson's ideas laid the foundations for the cooperative movement, which is now the world's largest democratic social movement.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - EBSCO (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (ebsco)781947

Includes bibliographical references and index.

What is happiness? -- The two faces of happiness: a brief history -- Between pleasure and well-being: Bentham -- William Thompson's social happiness -- The politics of happiness -- Happiness and utility -- The politics of happiness and democratic principles -- From theory to practice: cooperatives, happiness and democratic social change -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- Appendix 1. Laws and objects of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, adopted 1844 -- Appendix 2. Statement on the co-operative identity -- Notes -- References.

Print version record.

Examines the political significance of ideas about happiness through the work of utilitarian philosophers William Thompson and Jeremy Bentham. Happiness is political. The way we think about happiness affects what we do, how we relate to other people and the world around us, our moral principles, and even our ideas about how society should be organized. Utilitarianism, a political theory based on hedonistic and individualistic ideas of happiness, has been dominated for more than two-hundred years by its founder, Jeremy Bentham. In Happiness, Democracy, and the Cooperative Movement, Mark J. Kaswan examines the work of William Thompson, a friend of Bentham's who nonetheless offers a very different utilitarian philosophy and political theory based on a different conception of happiness, but whose work has been largely overlooked. Kaswan reveals the importance of our ideas about happiness for our understanding of the basic principles and nature of democracy, its role in society and its character as a social institution. In what is the closest examination of Thompson's political theory to date, Kaswan moves from philosophy to theory to practice, starting with conceptions of happiness before moving to theories of utility, then to democratic theory, and finally to practice in the first detailed account of how Thompson's ideas laid the foundations for the cooperative movement, which is now the world's largest democratic social movement.