The Happiness Industry. A book review

Abstract

The topic of William Davies’s book The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being is the notion of happiness seen from the philosophical and sociological perspective. The author argues that contemporary western societies have a tendency to individualize happiness and to use psychology and cognitive studies in a simplistic and pseudoscientific manner for business gains. Although there are also some simplifications in Davies’s own approach to those disciplines, he is able to show convincingly how risky it is to overlook the political and communal layer of happiness. At the same time he presents an interesting section of the utilitarian current in philosophy by showing how it anticipated modern discourse on happiness.