BOOK REVIEWS POLICY • Vol. 27 No. 3 • Spring 2011 60 and philosophical relationships between economics and theology. But his brief comments (chapter 10) indicate there is more to Christian discussion of economics than the terrible Princeton Presbyterian gathering. Ian’s Harper’s book is worth the purchase price on a number of grounds. He has the courage to write so personally, and writes clearly, making it engaging reading. Buy the book for someone you know who is thinking of studying economics, a church friend who thinks we would be better off without economists, or for an economist friend who would like an accessible account of what it is all about in the end. Economics for Life may not become a classic like Newman’s Apologia, but it will benefit many readers. Reviewed by Paul Oslington, Australian Catholic University. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being By Martin E.P. Seligman William Heinamann, Sydney 2011 $27.95, 349 pages ISBN 978186412971 M artin Seligman’s latest book seeks to develop a new theory of well- being. Much of Flourish, however, can be viewed as a sequel to his previous book Authentic Happiness. Seligman combines his views on what it means to flourish with self-help advice, an informative discussion of relevant research findings, and a discussion of his experience in teaching well-being in schools and the US Army. The book also tells the story of Seligman’s contribution to the development of positive psychology. Positive psychology is a new branch of psychology which aims to achieve a scientific understanding of positive human functioning and develop effective interventions to help individuals, families and communities to thrive. Seligman’s applications of positive psychology demonstrate that it involves a lot more than just being cheerful. In developing his new theory of well- being, Seligman has dispensed with the word ‘happiness’ because its dominant connotation is inextricably bound up with being in a cheerful mood. This pulls the rug from under critics of ‘authentic happiness’, who claimed that he was attempting to redefine happiness by dragging in the desiderata of engagement and meaning. Seligman also sees a problem with ‘life satisfaction’ because mood may determine more than 70% of how much life satisfaction an individual reports. He makes the point that public policy aimed only at subjective well-being is vulnerable to the ‘Brave New World’ caricature in which governments promote happiness by encouraging people to use ‘soma.’ Seligman derives his new theory of well-being by borrowing one of the questions that Aristotle asked: What is the good that we choose for its own sake rather than because it makes a contribution to something else that we value? Aristotle’s answer was happiness. Of course, what Aristotle meant by happiness was human flourishing rather than just positive feelings, emotional well-being, or life satisfaction. To Aristotle, flourishing involved developing ‘our truly human capacities.’ By modifying Aristotle’s question slightly, Seligman comes more directly to the question of what it means to flourish. He asks: What are the ‘elements’ that free people will choose for their own sake? He comes up with five such elements: positive emotion, engagement (being in the flow), relationships, meaning (purpose in life), and accomplishment (PERMA). Although I agree with Seligman’s five elements, I find it difficult to accept that PERMA incorporates all the elements that individuals would freely choose for their own sake. Other elements that individuals could choose for their own sake include health, safety, security, hope and control over their own lives. It is good to be healthy, quite apart from the contribution that good health makes to positive emotions, etc. It is also good to be safe—individuals experiencing PERMA are in a fool’s paradise if there is a high risk of criminals taking their lives from them. It is good to feel secure—to feel that PERMA may be ongoing. It is good to have hope—when we don’t have much PERMA, we are comforted by the hope that our lives could get better. We also seek to have control over our own lives. A slave who experienced a high level of PERMA would not fully flourish because slavery denies her the opportunity to develop her capacity for self-direction.