The place of happiness in pluralism

Wil Wilkinson notes that happiness cannot be taken as the sole master value and pleas for a “reasonable pluralism" in which happiness competes with other values in the public http://www.cato-unbound.org/archives/april-2007/debate. I agree that happiness is not the only valuable thing, but I also think that happiness has additional merits that go beyond its intrinsic worth. One extra point in favor of happiness is that it matches other humanistic values quite well. A second bonus is that happiness is an indicator of the fit between living conditions and human nature and, as such, informs us about the practicability of various value mixes.