The Passion for Happiness by Adam Potkay

The Passion for Happiness by Adam Potkay

Although widely perceived as inhabiting different, even opposed, literary worlds, Samuel Johnson and David Hume shared a common ground as moralists. Adam Potkay traces their central concerns to Hellenistic philosophy, as conveyed by Cicero, and to earlier moderns such Addison and Mandeville. Johnson's and Hume's large and diverse bodies of writings, Potkay says, are unified by several key questions: what is happiness? What is the role of virtue in the happy life? What is the proper relationship between passion and reflection in the happy or flourishing individual? In their writings, Johnson and Hume largely agree upon what flourishing means for both human beings and the communities they inhabit. they also tell a common story about the history that led up to the enlightened age of 18th-century Europe. On the divisive topic of religion, these two great men of letters wrote with a decorum that characterizes the Enlightenment in Britain as compared to its French counterpart. In this text, Adam Potkay aims to illuminate much that philosophers and historians do not ordinarily appreciate about Hume and that literary scholars might not recognize about Johnson.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780801437274
ISBN 10	080143727X
Title	The Passion for Happiness
Author	Adam Potkay
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Cornell University Press
Year published	2000-03-02
Number of pages	241
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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