The Pursuit of Unhappiness

The Pursuit of Unhappiness PDF Author: Daniel M. Haybron
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0199545987
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
"The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. As a result, we may need to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policymakers, and other students of human well-being."--BOOK JACKET.

The Pursuit of Unhappiness

The Pursuit of Unhappiness PDF Author: Daniel M. Haybron
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0199545987
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. As a result, we may need to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policymakers, and other students of human well-being."--BOOK JACKET.

The Pursuit of Unhappiness

The Pursuit of Unhappiness PDF Author: Daniel M. Haybron
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191562912
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. For the psychological dimensions of well-being, particularly our emotional lives, are far richer and more complex than we tend to realize. Knowing one's own interests is no trivial matter. As well, we tend to make a variety of systematic errors in the pursuit of happiness. We may need, then, to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policy makers, and other students of human well-being.

Theory of Unhappiness

Theory of Unhappiness PDF Author: Luis Cruz-Villalobos
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
"We do not know for sure if this book was written in less time than it took to write this text which, as a prologue, wants and needs musicality to remain. Maybe it is because beauty has no end and our stubbornness makes us look for it, or maybe it is a whim, because books like this do not end at the end, but they begin. What we do know is that Luis Cruz-Villalobos is one of those writers who cannot write a single poem because he needs to write whole books. I do not say this because his poems are not pieces of craftsmanship or small organisms as complex as a space station or an ant, but because his creative capacity is not of this world. And what is from other worlds often makes us unhappy. And, as has always been known, unhappiness is but the other side of the coin called life. On the other side are the happy ones. I was saying that Luis Cruz-Villalobos is not from this world of poets that fight and move in search of a definitive poem. He is not of the race of those who sculpt until they die, until the marble is taken from their workshops while they sleep. It is not of those hunters who spend hours with their sights set on the place where their faith tells them that the defenseless prey will appear, maybe for a couple of seconds. He is the mammoth hunter, the one who comes out with a spear as weak as our bones in search of the meat by the ton. And he always arrives home with food. In his cave, they have never gone to sleep with an unhappy belly. Dedicated to the whole world and to the little gods -like Nicanor Parra-, this architectural complex called Theory of Unhappiness, and which, on the contrary, draws us to happiness as a landscape, is no other house than the embers that remain alive, hidden behind the gray of the coals, until the fire of the future. Perhaps that is all this theory is trying to tell us. Perhaps knowing that the fire hides -or sleeps, or rests- in the heart of the coals, of the mother or of our own heart, is enough to keep our unhappiness at the right temperature: so cold as to be happy and so hot as to make others happy. Here we speak of unhappiness but also of time, of questions to the dead, of bad and good poets, of a Roman emperor, of axioms, of our ancestor Alonso Quijano, of course of philosophy, of God, of how much would fit in our notebooks and our hands. Here, in Theory of Unhappiness, one speaks of what should be spoken of at schools, in parks, in fields, one speaks of life itself, as Cortázar said, defending himself. And it is these places, where we find life, where we shall have to stay and wait for death. But do not stand still and do nothing, because that, and only that, is the opposite to happiness. It says it well in one of the epigraphs of the book -those immortal verses of don Nicanor- and I say it well, now, on the point that poetry returns to give me warmth: Luis Cruz-Villalobos is there, so that silence does not grow crooked." Sergio Marentes (Prologue). AUTHOR: LUIS CRUZ-VILLALOBOS, PhD (Santiago de Chile, 1976). Writer, clinical psychologist and professor. Doctor of Philosophy (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). Author of an extensive literary work in poetry, along with essays and academic papers.

Stumbling on Happiness

Stumbling on Happiness PDF Author: Daniel Gilbert
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307371360
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it. Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely turns out as we had expected. Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward. Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert shakes, cajoles, persuades, tricks and jokes us into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Among the unexpected questions he poses: Why are conjoined twins no less happy than the general population? When you go out to eat, is it better to order your favourite dish every time, or to try something new? If Ingrid Bergman hadn’t gotten on the plane at the end of Casablanca, would she and Bogey have been better off? Smart, witty, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny, Stumbling on Happiness brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there.

Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness

Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness PDF Author: Peter Warr
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135599076
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
Award-winning psychologist Peter Warr explores why some people at work are happier or unhappier than others. He evaluates different approaches to the definition and assessment of happiness, and combines environmental and person-based themes to explain differences in people's experience. A framework of key job characteristics is linked to an account of primary mental processes, and those are set within a summary of demographic, cultural, and occupational patterns. Consequences of happiness or unhappiness for individuals and groups are also reviewed, as is recent literature on unemployment and retirement. Although primarily focusing on job situations, the book shows that processes of happiness are similar across settings of all kinds. It provides a uniquely comprehensive assessment of research published across the world. Initial chapters explore the several meanings of happiness and the ways in which those have been measured by psychologists. The construct includes pleasure, satisfaction and subjective well-being, and unhappiness has been studied in terms of dissatisfaction, strain, anxiety, and depression. The impacts of principal environmental features on these experiences are reviewed through an analogy with vitamins in relation to physical health—beneficial only up to a point. However, environmental effects are not fixed. Influences on happiness from within the person are examined in terms of principal thinking patterns, personality styles, and cultural backgrounds. Differences are explored between groups (men and women, older and younger people, employees who are full-time and part-time, and so on), and processes of person-environment fit are placed within an overall framework which emphasizes the impact of variations in personal salience. The book is written primarily for academic readers, including senior undergraduates, graduate students, teachers, and researchers in fields of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Management, Human Resources, and Labor Studies. However, the topic's centrality in many professions makes it important also to a wider readership.

A Theory of Unemployment and Unhappiness

A Theory of Unemployment and Unhappiness PDF Author: Jianbo Luo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper proposes a theory of fixed cost of living, F, to explain various paradoxes in the literature of happiness and unemployment. Three testable hypotheses are identified and verified: (1) Most, if not all, of the happiness decrease is due to pecuniary cost. (2) There exists an F in the utility function. (3) The marginal utility of leisure is positive for those employed, while negative for those unemployed. Finally, a critical review is provided, showing how the proposed theory is the root cause why the unemployed are so unhappy.

The Conquest of Happiness

The Conquest of Happiness PDF Author: Bertrand Russell
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1631491482
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
“Should be read by every parent, teacher, minister, and Congressman in the land.”—The Atlantic In The Conquest of Happiness, first published by Liveright in 1930, iconoclastic philosopher Bertrand Russell attempted to diagnose the myriad causes of unhappiness in modern life and chart a path out of the seemingly inescapable malaise so prevalent even in safe and prosperous Western societies. More than eighty years later, Russell’s wisdom remains as true as it was on its initial release. Eschewing guilt-based morality, Russell lays out a rationalist prescription for living a happy life, including the importance of cultivating interests outside oneself and the dangers of passive pleasure. In this new edition, best-selling philosopher Daniel C. Dennett reintroduces Russell to a new generation, stating that Conquest is both “a fascinating time capsule” and “a prototype of the flood of self-help books that have more recently been published, few of them as well worth reading today as Russell’s little book.”

The Nature of Unhappiness

The Nature of Unhappiness PDF Author: David Smail
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 9781841193502
Category : Depression, Mental
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
Containing two of Smail's seminal works, this book, together with the companion volume Why Therapy Doesn't Work, form a synthesis of his theory & practice, offering an understanding of the origins of psychological disorder & the available therapy.

Freud

Freud PDF Author: Frederick Crews
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1627797181
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 768

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Book Description
From the master of Freud debunkers, the book that definitively puts an end to the myth of psychoanalysis and its creator Since the 1970s, Sigmund Freud’s scientific reputation has been in an accelerating tailspin—but nonetheless the idea persists that some of his contributions were visionary discoveries of lasting value. Now, drawing on rarely consulted archives, Frederick Crews has assembled a great volume of evidence that reveals a surprising new Freud: a man who blundered tragicomically in his dealings with patients, who in fact never cured anyone, who promoted cocaine as a miracle drug capable of curing a wide range of diseases, and who advanced his career through falsifying case histories and betraying the mentors who had helped him to rise. The legend has persisted, Crews shows, thanks to Freud’s fictive self-invention as a master detective of the psyche, and later through a campaign of censorship and falsification conducted by his followers. A monumental biographical study and a slashing critique, Freud: The Making of an Illusion will stand as the last word on one of the most significant and contested figures of the twentieth century.

The Challenge of Affluence

The Challenge of Affluence PDF Author: Avner Offer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198208537
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have experienced rising material abundance, but also a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, obesity and addiction. Drawing on the latest cognitive research, Avner Offer presents a detailed and reasoned critique of the modern consumer society.