Happiness and dependency: Reflections on happiness: Personhood, community, purpose by Pedro Alexis Tabensky

Bowden, P. (2004) Happiness and dependency: Reflections on happiness: Personhood, community, purpose by Pedro Alexis Tabensky. South African Journal of Philosophy, 23 (4). pp. 394-400.

Abstract

This paper argues that Pedro Tabenksy's Aristotelean understanding of true happiness overlooks the constitutive significance of the virtues and values of relationships of radical dependency. Tabensky's focus on the rational and contextual aspects of personhood as the locus for our social interdependence results in friendship relationships being taken as paradigmatic for social engagements. Through a sketch of some of the unique dimensions of the asymmetrical relations upon which our bodily functioning and personal identities inevitably depend, I show that this focus risks perpetuating the lack of recognition of the value and significance of caring relations familiar to us in contemporary societies today.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Publisher:	Philosophical Society of Southern Africa (PSSA)
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/16403

Item Control Page