The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

"The most brilliant and lucid analysis of virtue and well-being in the entire literature of positive psychology. For the reader who seeks to understand happiness, my advice is: Begin with Haidt." --Martin E.P. Seligman, University of Pennsylvania and author of Authentic Happiness

The Happiness Hypothesis is a book about ten Great Ideas. Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations--to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives and illuminate the causes of human flourishing. Award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows how a deeper understanding of the world's philosophical wisdom and its enduring maxims--like "do unto others as you would have others do unto you," or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"--can enrich and transform our lives.

ISBN-13: 9780465028023

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Basic Books

Publication Date: 12-26-2006

Pages: 320

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

Age Range: 13 - 18 Years

Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is a social psychologist whose research examines morality and the moral emotions. He is the author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, and the coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Too Much Wisdom     ix
The Divided Self     1
Changing Your Mind     23
Reciprocity with a Vengeance     45
The Faults of Others     59
The Pursuit of Happiness     81
Love and Attachments     107
The Uses of Adversity     135
The Felicity of Virtue     155
Divinity With or Without God     181
Happiness Comes from Between     213
Conclusion: On Balance     241
Acknowledgments     245
Notes     247
References     265
Index     291 Show More