ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the different conceptions of happiness in current happiness economics. One of the concepts of happiness that has been recently promoted in the psychological literature that the chapter emphasizes is the idea of "flourishing". The chapter describes this notion and explains how the classical Aristotelian eudaimonia or "flourishing" fits the liberal naturalistic economic position. Happiness economics, one of the new and growing branches of the reverse imperialist wave, incorporates elements from social psychology and ethics into economics. Since its inception, economics has been meant to contribute to people's happiness. For Aristotle, this discipline was about how to use things in order to have a "good life" – the Greek philosopher's notion of happiness. The "Greatest Happiness Principle" is repeatedly mentioned in Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings as the aim of political economy, a view also shared by John Stuart Mill. David Hume, a philosopher and friend of Adam Smith, wrote a number of essays on economics.
