Hilary Campbell reviews Casting Off: Finding Faith for Change by Ruth Scott SPCK. London. 2005. £7.99. ISBN 028105696X reviews sof 73 September 2005 In some ways this book is stating the obvious. The Americans put ‘the pursuit of happiness’ at the top of their agenda in 1776, and Jeremy Bentham proposed the principle of the Greatest Happiness nearly 200 years ago. And many of us reflect wryly that we are not much happier after 50 years of unprecedentedly rapid increase in our standard of living. But we are stuck because we think happiness is purely subjective and a rather woolly concept.
Richard Layard is an economist (a professor at LSE), not a philosopher, and he approaches this problem scientifically. The unfolding of his logic challenges the assumptions underlying the current received wisdom. His book is very readable, and is brightened up by cartoons and quotations; but it is also a scholarly work, with simple statements justified in footnote references to scientific studies not only in economics but also in sociology, psychology, neuroscience and social policy.
The first part of the book shows that happiness is measurable, and this is the basis of all the subsequent logic which leads to ever more exciting conclusions.
Our unquestioning pursuit of economic growth and individual consumption is put to shame by showing that when we see the joy of children getting new toys rapidly fading, especially when other children are getting them too, this applies equally to grown-ups.
He quotes scientific studies showing what sort of thing causes happiness and misery. He shows that reducing our selfishness and competitiveness, and increasing our compassion, will make us better off – happier. He recommends that we should monitor levels of happiness and misery; rethink our attitude to taxes; go for greater equality; spend more time with our families and work shorter hours; forbid advertising to children; give high priority to mental health; recognise the value of meditation; and rethink moral education in schools.
So what has all this got to do with the Sea of Faith? Traditional religion has had two valuable functions: to convey wisdom about morality – how we live together – and about spirituality – selfawareness, and the search for inner peace. But as God has faded from our everyday vocabulary, and has become an embarrassing concept, to my surprise morality has become almost as faded and embarrassing. I do not think that even a hundred years ago there were many people whose only motivation for doing the right thing was to avoid punishment by the almighty law enforcement officer.
Bishop Holloway has shown that Godless Morality is perfectly possible. It was a revelation that when Robin Cook suggested in 1997 that we should have an ethical foreign policy, this was treated with derision. Our own national interest is the only criterion.
So how do we shift from maximising profit to doing good? Why should we do what is right?
Because it makes us happier. ‘I don’t have that faith.’ ‘Then look at the evidence.’ Perhaps Richard Layard’s principle of the Greatest Happiness provides us with a widely acceptable motivation to discern how to achieve it, both by our policies and individual actions and through spirituality. The argument will be more persuasive for resting on scientific evidence rather than faith.
I hope this remarkable book will be widely read by Sea of Faith members, and perhaps we might invite Richard Layard to a future conference to help us decide what to do about it.
I am tempted to sum up with a nutshell philosophy which I heard in a play a dozen years ago:
Love one another.
And you will be happy.
It is as simple, And as difficult, As that.
There is no other way.
Amen.
Denis Gildea is a retired civil servant and a long-standing member of SoF Network.
Review of Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard (Allen Lane, London, 2005, 310 pages, hbk, £17.99, ISBN 0713997699), reviewed by Denis Gildea.