Campus Theme: Exploring Happiness

Winter Term Presentations 

Politics: It’s a Happiness Thing. 
You Wouldn’t Understand

Politics is about power. Politics is the process through which societies articulate shared values to produce binding public agreements. Politics is often shabby, brutal, corrupt, and sometimes violent, but seldom “fun” or “satisfying.” So, where does “happiness” come in? Professor Hughes, whose teaching and research focus on political behavior at the margins, including conspiracies, violence, and terrorism, will suggest that human “happiness,” properly understood, is impossible in the absence of active involvement in public—that is, political—life. Human beings are, by nature, social animals, and no society can long endure, much less provide opportunities for “happiness,” in the absence of the contract of agreements by which social behavior is guided.

Presenter: Bill Hughes, Political Science

Thursday, Jan 31, 2013 • 7 pm • Stevenson Union 319