IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v66y2007i4p661-680.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Talmudic Doctrine of “The Benefit of a Pleasure”: Psychological Well‐Being in Talmudic Literature

Author

Listed:
  • Roman A. Ohrenstein

Abstract

. In this article, we attempt to analyze the Talmudic notion of well‐being in the light of modern hedonic psychology. First, we examine the thoughts of Hebrew “wisdom” and Greek “sophia” concerning the phenomenon of happiness. We then discuss the Talmudic doctrine of “optimality,” a concept similar to that of the Pareto improvement. This is followed by a discourse deemed to be of extraordinary significance—the idea of “mutual benefit,” which may be described as “super optimum.” Thereafter, the doctrine of the “Benefit of a Pleasure” is demonstrated to be a “pleasure‐measure” of reciprocal and nonreciprocal happiness. Finally, it is argued, that although Plato, according to Professor Lowry, detailed precise “trade‐offs” between degrees of pleasure, pain, and time, it was applied to “moral values” only, whereas the Talmudists posited the existence of a “psychoeconomic” category, in which pleasure itself is equated with money.

Suggested Citation

  • Roman A. Ohrenstein, 2007. "The Talmudic Doctrine of “The Benefit of a Pleasure”: Psychological Well‐Being in Talmudic Literature," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(4), pages 661-680, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:4:p:661-680
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00533.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00533.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00533.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fluhrer, Svenja & Kraehnert, Kati, 2022. "Sitting in the same boat: Subjective well-being and social comparison after an extreme weather event," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    2. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.
    3. Senik, Claudia, 2009. "Direct evidence on income comparisons and their welfare effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 408-424, October.
    4. Carlo Borzaga & Ermanno Tortia, 2004. "Worker involvement in entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations. Toward a new assessment of workers' perceived satisfaction and fairness," Department of Economics Working Papers 0409, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    5. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    6. Botond Kőszegi & Matthew Rabin, 2006. "A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1133-1165.
    7. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2009. "Homo Reciprocans: Survey Evidence on Behavioural Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 592-612, March.
    8. Guven, Cahit & Senik, Claudia & Stichnoth, Holger, 2012. "You can’t be happier than your wife. Happiness gaps and divorce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 110-130.
    9. Simona Šarotar Žižek & Matjaž Mulej & Sonja Treven, 2010. "Requisite Holism Of Individuals As A Precondition For The Humankind’S Way Out From The 2008- Crisis," Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi - Stiinte Economice (1954-2015), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 57, pages 399-419, november.
    10. Samuel Cameron & Mark Fox, 2011. "Half Full or Half Empty: The Economics of Work–Life Balance," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. McDonald, Rebecca & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2018. "The Shadow Prices of Voluntary Caregiving: Using Panel Data of Well-Being to Estimate the Cost of Informal Care," IZA Discussion Papers 11545, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Mookerjee, Rajen & Beron, Krista, 2005. "Gender, religion and happiness," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 674-685, October.
    13. Alpizar, Francisco & Carlsson, Fredrik & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2005. "How much do we care about absolute versus relative income and consumption?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 405-421, March.
    14. Varvarigos, Dimitrios, 2011. "Non-monotonic welfare dynamics in a growing economy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 303-312, June.
    15. Thi Truong An Hoang & Andreas Knabe, 2021. "Time Use, Unemployment, and Well-Being: An Empirical Analysis Using British Time-Use Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2525-2548, August.
    16. Stephen Martin, 2019. "The Potential Compensation Principle and Constant Marginal Utility of Income," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 383-393, September.
    17. Chua, Jess H. & Chrisman, James J. & De Massis, Alfredo & Wang, Hao, 2018. "Reflections on family firm goals and the assessment of performance," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 107-113.
    18. Jolanda Hessels & José María Millán & Concepción Román, 2015. "The Importance of Being in Control of Business: Work Satisfaction of Employers, Own-account Workers and Employees," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 15-047/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    19. Merz, Joachim & Rathjen, Tim, 2011. "Intensity of Time and Income Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty: Well-Being and Minimum 2DGAP – German Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 6022, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. John Cullis & John Hudson & Philip Jones, 2011. "A Different Rationale for Redistribution: Pursuit of Happiness in the European Union," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 323-341, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:4:p:661-680. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.