One dictionary definition of "eudaemonism" is "a theory that the highest ethical good is happiness and personal well-being." If we are going to relate eudaemonia (literally, a good guardian spirit) to the English word "happiness" we should understand that happiness as so understood cannot be merely pleasure, or some positive sum count of pleasures versus pains. I won't attempt a formal definition, but it suggests a long-term pattern of living well, in an inner condition of serenity, and possessed of the resources adequate to a temperate and rational creature. I am thinking of this because I recently found the phrase "a pragmatist sort of eudaemonism" in a book review. I gather that would be a view that actions should be judged by whether they help the actor (and or affected-persons-in-general) achieve happiness. Not pleasure ...happiness. A sort of midway point between Bentham and Aristotle. It is small wonder that the phrase was N...