Heidegger and Happiness Dwelling on Fitting and Being

Heidegger and Happinessoffers an original interpretation of Heidegger's later thought, within the context of his philosophy as a whole, to develop a new conception of human happiness. The book redeems the essential content of the Greek notion of eudaimonia and transcends recent debates concerning the 'objectivity' or 'subjectivity' of happiness. The author shows that Heidegger's thinking of being is far from arcane and abstract, and is crucially important in understanding the deepest sources of human well-being. An etymological examination of the word 'happiness' frees the word from the constraints of utilitarian ways of thinking, which suggest that 'happiness' is only peripherally related to eudaimonia.King demonstrates that a sense of fittingness is essential both to 'happiness' and to eudaimonia, and shows how deep happiness, conceived as dwelling in our fitting-together with being, can serve as a 'grounding attunement' for the thinking of being.

Acknowledgements Glossary Introduction Why Heidegger and happiness? The later Heidegger's two senses of being Fitting and dwelling Heidegger's schemes of affective states Being and Time: Befindlichkeit and Stimmung Nietzsche I: Affekt, Leidenschaft, and Gefühl What is Philosophy?: Stimmung vs. Affekt or Gefühl Chapter One: ??da?µ???a and Happiness ?a?µ?? and e?da?µ???a ??da?µ???a and fittingness in Plato's Republic Modern happiness Chapter Two: The Happening of Being Turning from temporality to Ereignis Language, ‘the other language', and etymology ‘Happiness' and fittingness Later Heideggerian phenomenology ‘The Tuft of Flowers' Chapter Three: The Fitting-Together of Human Being and Being Wonder The essence of human beings The gathered four, the divinities, and the holy ‘Babette's Feast' ‘Voice of Fire' Fitting together with the being of others Chapter Four: The History of Being Overview of Heidegger's history of being Seinsvergessenheit, Ge-Stell, and ‘the last men' Up the creek from Ge-Stell to f?s??Conclusion Bibliography Index