Cookies & Wasps

Here are some links that are loosely related to the stuff on happy ethics (utilitarianism) that we are studying.

• A neat little biography of know-it-all John Stuart Mill
• An advanced encyclopedia article on happy ethics and other theories that focus on consequences of an action
• There's a lot of psychological research on happiness popping up lately. Here's one overview of positive psychology. And here's a second one.
• There's an insightful, accessible book on the psychology of happiness called Stumbling on Happiness
  
• Recent studies suggest that our baseline level of happiness doesn't change much throughout our life. So, even if we won the lottery, we wouldn't wind up that much happier. This is potentially very depressing news, although some say there's room for some optimism, and others think the research is wrong.
  
• The trolley problem gets brought up a lot when evaluating happy ethics. There's some new research on the psychology of the trolley problem.

So what makes you happy? Wawa? Ping pong? Doubletree Hotel Cookies?