What is happiness and how do we know when we have achieved it? Why do we desire happiness, and should we desire it? Is happiness a mental state or a prudential value, a subjective experience or the fulfilment of objective criteria, the satisfaction of desire or a measure of overall well-being? Is happiness culturally determined? What is the relationship between happiness and the good? What can the history of philosophy teach us about the idea of happiness? This special issue of the South African Journal of Philosophy invites contributions on these and other philosophical questions related to happiness.

Argument

Special issue of the South African Journal of Philosophy

Guest editors: Vasti Roodt (Stellenbosch University) and Isabelle Wienand (University of Fribourg /University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland)

What is happiness and how do we know when we have achieved it? Why do we desire happiness, and should we desire it? Is happiness a mental state or a prudential value, a subjective experience or the fulfilment of objective criteria, the satisfaction of desire or a measure of overall well-being? Is happiness culturally determined? What is the relationship between happiness and the good? What can the history of philosophy teach us about the idea of happiness? This special issue of the South African Journal of Philosophy invites contributions on these and other philosophical questions related to happiness.

Submissions on the following topics are particularly welcome:

• Classical versus modern theories of happiness
• Perspectives on happiness from within African philosophy
• The role of reason in happiness
• Happiness as a moral concept
• Happiness and pleasure
• Happiness and utility
• Justice, happiness and welfare
• Measuring happiness
• Philosophical issues raised by the psychology of happiness
• Happiness and psychopathology
• Representations of happiness in literature and/or art

Submission guidelines

The deadline for submissions is 1 June 2014

for publication in the SAJP Vol. 33 No. 4, 2014.

All manuscripts must be submitted in electronic format by e-mail.

They are to be prepared for anonymous review and sent as e-mail attachments (.doc, .docx, or .rtf files) to both guest editors, Vasti Roodt (vroodt@sun.ac.za) and Isabelle Wienand (isabelle.wienand@unifr.ch).

Manuscripts should be 6000-8000 words in length and adhere to the SAJP instructions for authors, available at http://www.sajp.za.net/sajp-author-guidlines.html.

All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review. However, authors should include their full name, affiliation and address for email correspondence with their submission.

Further enquiries can be addressed to the guest editors or to the editor of the SAJP, Andrea Hurst, at andrea.hurst@nmmu.ac.za.

The SAJP is the official journal of the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa. The journal is anonymously refereed, indexed and published by Taylor & Francis.

The journal website is http://www.sajp.za.net/.