Happiness at the LSE
October 19, 2011
I went along to a very good-natured debate tonight at the LSE between Professor Lord Layard and Professor Lord Skidelsky. Happiness research is something I’m very interested in. In fact it was a chapter on happiness at the back of an introductory economics book that first lead me on the path to mutualism.
I was so cramped in my seat that I didn’t really get a chance to take notes but once the video’s up I’ll have another look. Skidelsky seemed to be playing the contrarian a bit but raised some challenging points which Layard responded to well. Skidelsky’s also threw in a few jokes for the punters, at one point asking whether happiness “was like God having an orgasm in your head”. Hovering behind the debate was clearly a political argument about cuts and levels of public ownership.
As I said before, the debate was good-natured throughout. It seems that you just can’t debate happiness without having a smile on your face.
I’m curious to know whether any of these happiness experts has ever considered mutualism as a solution. I might have to ask them sometime.
