Written in a pragmatic, yet inspirational style, this book provides relevant and useful information on happiness. It includes a brief history of happiness and motivates readers to apply strategies related to happiness in their day-to-day life. It also discusses the benefits of being happy and the consequences of being unhappy. The strategies are listed under the headings - Zany, Zeal, Zest and Zing. Each chapter is unique and will be of great interest to readers.
In this lucid and revealing book, Marcus argues that the mind is not an elegantly designed organ but rather a "kluge," a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption. He unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the human mind -- think duct tape, not supercomputer -- that sheds light on some of the most mysterious aspects of human nature. Taking us on a tour of the fundamental areas of human experience -- memory, belief, decision-making, language, and happiness -- Marcus reveals the myriad ways our minds fall short. He examines why people often vote against their own interests, why money can't buy happiness, why leaders often stick to bad decisions, and why a sentence like "people people left left" ties us in knots even though it's only four words long. Marcus also offers surprisingly effective ways to outwit our inner kluge, for the betterment of ourselves and society. Throughout, he shows how only evolution -- haphazard and undirected -- could have produced the minds we humans have, while making a brilliant case for the power and usefulness of imperfection.
Aristotle's teaching on the subject of happiness has been a topic of intense philosophical. Did he hold that happiness consists of the exercise of all the virtues, moral and intellectual, or that supreme happiness is to be found only in the practice of philosophical contemplation? The question is vital to the relevance of his ethics today. Anthony Kenny helped to set the terms of the debate a quarter of a century ago. Later, in his book The Aristotelian Ethics, he argued that Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics has no less claim than the better-known Nicomachean Ethics...
A Brief History of Happiness
By: Nicholas White (University of California, Irvine)
White takes his readers on [a] journey, aiming to reach an appreciation of the nature of happiness. He splendidly suceeds in making the journey as fascinating as it deserves to be. White has produ...
Happiness: The Science behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle What exactly is happiness? Can we measure
it? Why are some people happy and others not? And is there a drug that
could eliminate all unhappiness? People all over the world, and
throughout the ages, have thought about happiness, argued about its
nature, and, most of all, desired it. But why do we have such a strong
instinct to pursue happiness? And if happiness is good in itself, why
haven't we simply evolved to be happier? Daniel Nettle uses the results
of the latest psychological studies to ask what makes people happy and
unhappy, what happiness really is, and to examine our urge to achieve
it. Along the way we look at brain systems, at mind-altering drugs, and
how happiness is now marketed to us as a commodity. Nettle concludes
that while it may be unrealistic to expect lasting happiness, our
evolved tendency to seek happiness drives us to achieve much that is
worthwhile in itself. What is more, it seems to be not your particular
circumstances that define whether you are happy so much as your
attitude towards life. Happiness gives us the latest scientific
insights into the nature of our feelings of well-being, and what these
imply for how we might live our lives. (Amazon.Com)
