Happiness in the Long Eighteenth Century

ABSTRACT In this article, I offer a thematic overview of differing conceptions of happiness in the long 18th century. These conceptions are hedonism, subjectivism, and eudaemonism. Philosophers today term these ‘the big three’, meaning that most theories of happiness can be described in terms of one or other of them. Broadly speaking, it can be argued that, during the Middle Ages, happiness was generally conceived of in eudaemonistic terms. Wellbeing involved living in accordance with one's essence, which was to say, living as God intended. Happiness was seen to be closely related to virtue and piety. To live well meant to live in the right way. From the 17th century onwards, medieval eudaemonism was profoundly challenged by a range of socio‐economic, intellectual, and cultural factors. These provided an impetus to conceive of happiness in terms of hedonism and/or subjectivism. Aside from offering an overview of scholarship relevant to these historical themes, an additional focus of this review is to describe how different literary forms contributed to the proliferation of these forms of happiness. Furthermore, towards the end of the review, I offer a discussion of contemporary debates about wellbeing, highlighting the relevance of the 18th century to those seeking to grapple with the nature of the good life in the present day.