1. In chapter IV--"Happiness and the Public World: Beyond Political Liberalism" in the book, Process Philosophy and Social Thought, edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. and W. Widick Schroeder(Chicago, Illinois: Center for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1981), Franklin I. Gamwell is concerned to answer the question, "What is happiness and the public world beyond political liberalism?"
2. Gamwell's answer is that "maximizing happiness is maximizing the public world,"1) that happiness is neither a private interest, nor a liberal preference, but the public world in the long run, and that "the maximally virtuous person is the maximally happier person" insofar as "the maximal happiness principle" is based on "the maximal public principle: so act as to maximize the public world--and, by implication, in the long run."2)
3. Gamwell's method of teaching us is by first showing us "the poverty of liberalism,"(pp. 39-42) "a Whiteheadian view of happiness,"(pp. 42-6) and finally "beyond political liberalism."(pp. 46-52)
4. Gamwell maintains that the significance of understanding "happiness and the public world: beyond political liberalism" is to recognize that "value for self is maximized insofar as one pursues the maximal contribution to others,"3) that "one's possibilities as a coordinated individual are greater insofar as the accumulated importance appropriated from the wider world greater,"4) that "in its concern to prevent interference, liberalism has been blind to the way in which a community devoted to private interests prevents the higher ranges of freedom and individuality from appearing,"5) and, therefore, that "the social and political order in America"6) should be defined not by "the priority given to economic goals and economic institutions,"7) but by the public happiness beyond preferential liberalism.
5. My own opinion is: Gamwell's ethical theory clarifies that American individualism called political liberalism or private happiness is metaphysically wrong in the long run, and, therefore shows us that our private happiness should be pursued only in connection with our contribution to communal happiness. On this principle, our chronic disease, individualism, and a lot of global crises including ecological will be better cured.
1) p. 51
2) p. 49
3) p. 45
4) pp. 45-6
5) p. 52
6) Ibid.
7) Ibid.