HAPPINESS: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy, edited by Steven M. Cahn and Christine Vitrano. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 272 Pp. (BJ1481.H37)

This book, the first and only collection of its kind, presents the thinking of twenty-seven classic and contemporary philosophers exploring the nature of happiness. Among the contributors are: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, and Sartre, and other equally distinguished philosophers. Joining this august roster is Julia Annas, Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona, and member of St. Philip's.

Dr. Annas, wrote two chapters in HAPPINESS. Under the section, "Happiness as More Than Satisfaction," her chapter is entitled, "Happiness as Achievement." Dr. Annas tells how her former student Kurt Meyers dealt with happiness in his business ethics class. He asked the students what they thought a happy life consisted of. All mentioned material things like a large salary, a nice house, an SUV, and so on. Well, he said, suppose you find in the mail tomorrow that an unknown benefactor has left you lots of money, so that these material things are now yours for the having. Would this make you happy? Overwhelmingly they said no ..." P. 243. What the students admitted was that it was not stuff that made them happy. They wanted a sense of achievement.

In the next section, "Happiness and Virtue," Dr. Annas entitled her second chapter "Virtue and Eudaimonism." She says "The two most important and central concepts in ancient ethical theory are those of virtue (aręte) and happiness (eudaimonia)." P. 245.

The Library Committee thanks Dr. Annas for HAPPINESS and _______, a second work recently added to the library titles on ethics. …The Library Committee