The Promise of Happiness

The Promise of Happiness PDF Author: Sara Ahmed
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 082239278X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Promise of Happiness is a provocative cultural critique of the imperative to be happy. It asks what follows when we make our desires and even our own happiness conditional on the happiness of others: “I just want you to be happy”; “I’m happy if you’re happy.” Combining philosophy and feminist cultural studies, Sara Ahmed reveals the affective and moral work performed by the “happiness duty,” the expectation that we will be made happy by taking part in that which is deemed good, and that by being happy ourselves, we will make others happy. Ahmed maintains that happiness is a promise that directs us toward certain life choices and away from others. Happiness is promised to those willing to live their lives in the right way. Ahmed draws on the intellectual history of happiness, from classical accounts of ethics as the good life, through seventeenth-century writings on affect and the passions, eighteenth-century debates on virtue and education, and nineteenth-century utilitarianism. She engages with feminist, antiracist, and queer critics who have shown how happiness is used to justify social oppression, and how challenging oppression causes unhappiness. Reading novels and films including Mrs. Dalloway, The Well of Loneliness, Bend It Like Beckham, and Children of Men, Ahmed considers the plight of the figures who challenge and are challenged by the attribution of happiness to particular objects or social ideals: the feminist killjoy, the unhappy queer, the angry black woman, and the melancholic migrant. Through her readings she raises critical questions about the moral order imposed by the injunction to be happy.

The Promise of Happiness

The Promise of Happiness PDF Author: Sara Ahmed
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 082239278X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Promise of Happiness is a provocative cultural critique of the imperative to be happy. It asks what follows when we make our desires and even our own happiness conditional on the happiness of others: “I just want you to be happy”; “I’m happy if you’re happy.” Combining philosophy and feminist cultural studies, Sara Ahmed reveals the affective and moral work performed by the “happiness duty,” the expectation that we will be made happy by taking part in that which is deemed good, and that by being happy ourselves, we will make others happy. Ahmed maintains that happiness is a promise that directs us toward certain life choices and away from others. Happiness is promised to those willing to live their lives in the right way. Ahmed draws on the intellectual history of happiness, from classical accounts of ethics as the good life, through seventeenth-century writings on affect and the passions, eighteenth-century debates on virtue and education, and nineteenth-century utilitarianism. She engages with feminist, antiracist, and queer critics who have shown how happiness is used to justify social oppression, and how challenging oppression causes unhappiness. Reading novels and films including Mrs. Dalloway, The Well of Loneliness, Bend It Like Beckham, and Children of Men, Ahmed considers the plight of the figures who challenge and are challenged by the attribution of happiness to particular objects or social ideals: the feminist killjoy, the unhappy queer, the angry black woman, and the melancholic migrant. Through her readings she raises critical questions about the moral order imposed by the injunction to be happy.

It's My Absolute Pleasure

It's My Absolute Pleasure PDF Author: Imani N. Robinson
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1973690160
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Get Book Here

Book Description
Our culture today has left out one of the most important ingredients to making a lasting and unshakable impact. One of the most important ingredients to sustaning ministry. Serving, and serving well.. Jesus did not come to be served but to serve.

The Year of Pleasures

The Year of Pleasures PDF Author: Elizabeth Berg
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588364569
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this rich and deeply satisfying novel by the beloved author of The Art of Mending, and Open House, a resilient woman embarks upon an unforgettable journey of adventure, self-discovery, and renewal. Betta Nolan moves to a small town after the death of her husband to try to begin anew. Pursuing a dream of a different kind of life, she is determined to find pleasure in her simply daily routines. Among those who help her in both expected and unexpected ways are the ten-year-old boy next door, three wild women friends from her college days, a twenty-year-old who is struggling to find his place in the world, and a handsome man who is ready for love. Elizabeth Berg's The Year of Pleasuresis about acknowledging the solace found in ordinary things: a warm bath, good food, the beauty of nature, music, friends, and art. "Berg writes with humor and a big heart about resilience, loneliness, love, and hope. And the transcendence that redeems," said Andre Dubus about Durable Goods. And the same could be said about The Year of Pleasures.

The Promise of Wilderness

The Promise of Wilderness PDF Author: James Morton Turner
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 029580422X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545

Get Book Here

Book Description
From Denali's majestic slopes to the Great Swamp of central New Jersey, protected wilderness areas make up nearly twenty percent of the parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands that cover a full fourth of the nation's territory. But wilderness is not only a place. It is also one of the most powerful and troublesome ideas in American environmental thought, representing everything from sublime beauty and patriotic inspiration to a countercultural ideal and an overextension of government authority. The Promise of Wilderness examines how the idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Wilderness preservation has engaged diverse groups of citizens, from hunters and ranchers to wildlife enthusiasts and hikers, as political advocates who have leveraged the resources of local and national groups toward a common goal. Turner demonstrates how these efforts have contributed to major shifts in modern American environmental politics, which have emerged not just in reaction to a new generation of environmental concerns, such as environmental justice and climate change, but also in response to changed debates over old conservation issues, such as public lands management. He also shows how battles over wilderness protection have influenced American politics more broadly, fueling disputes over the proper role of government, individual rights, and the interests of rural communities; giving rise to radical environmentalism; and playing an important role in the resurgence of the conservative movement, especially in the American West. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsq-6LAeYKk

The Language of Heaven

The Language of Heaven PDF Author: Sam Storms
Publisher:
ISBN: 1629996076
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book Here

Book Description
Few other issues have separated the church more than the issue of tongues. Sam Storms focuses on this controversial subject with his signature insights to theology and the gifts of the spirit. What does the gift giver say about the gift He gave? Storms seeks to bring balance to this subject in The Language of Heaven as he wrestles with this s...

The Heaven Promise

The Heaven Promise PDF Author: Scot McKnight
Publisher: WaterBrook
ISBN: 1601426291
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
Heaven. Eternity. The Afterlife. When you mention any of these concepts, people of all ages and from all walks of life are certain to have opinions. How can we know for sure what heaven will be like? According to New Testament scholar and popular author Scot McKnight, all we need to do is turn to Scripture to answer our questions. McKnight helps you examine God’s Word in order to discover what awaits you on the other side of the grave and find answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding heaven, including: 1. What about Near Death Experiences? 2. What about Rewards in Heaven? 3. Who Will Be in Heaven? 4. Is God Fair? 5. Will There Be Families in Heaven? 6. What about Children Who Die? 7. What about Cremation? 8. What about Purgatory? 9. Will There Be Pets in Heaven? 10. Why Believe in Heaven? Heaven isn’t the construction of a fairy tale or some mystical narrative. It’s very real; it’s very good; and it’s very much the fulfillment of God’s promise to you.

History of a Pleasure Seeker

History of a Pleasure Seeker PDF Author: Richard Mason
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307949281
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Just try to resist.... A Continental Downton Abbey plus sex, with a dash of Dangerous Liaisons tossed in.” —Seattle Times Piet Barol has an instinctive appreciation for pleasure and a gift for finding it. When his mother dies, Piet applies for a job as tutor to the troubled son of Europe's leading hotelier—a child who refuses to leave his family’s mansion on one of Amsterdam’s grandest canals. As Piet enters this glittering world, he learns its secrets and finds his life transformed. A brilliantly written portrait of the senses, History of a Pleasure Seeker is an opulent, romantic coming-of-age drama set at the height of Europe’s Belle Époque, written with a lightness of touch that is wholly modern and original.

Only a Promise of Happiness

Only a Promise of Happiness PDF Author: Alexander Nehamas
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691148651
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Get Book Here

Book Description
Neither art nor philosophy was kind to beauty during the twentieth century. Much modern art disdains beauty, and many philosophers deeply suspect that beauty merely paints over or distracts us from horrors. Intellectuals consigned the passions of beauty to the margins, replacing them with the anemic and rarefied alternative, "aesthetic pleasure." In Only a Promise of Happiness, Alexander Nehamas reclaims beauty from its critics. He seeks to restore its place in art, to reestablish the connections among art, beauty, and desire, and to show that the values of art, independently of their moral worth, are equally crucial to the rest of life. Nehamas makes his case with characteristic grace, sensitivity, and philosophical depth, supporting his arguments with searching studies of art and literature, high and low, from Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and Manet's Olympia to television. Throughout, the discussion of artworks is generously illustrated. Beauty, Nehamas concludes, may depend on appearance, but this does not make it superficial. The perception of beauty manifests a hope that life would be better if the object of beauty were part of it. This hope can shape and direct our lives for better or worse. We may discover misery in pursuit of beauty, or find that beauty offers no more than a tantalizing promise of happiness. But if beauty is always dangerous, it is also a pressing human concern that we must seek to understand, and not suppress.

Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life

Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life PDF Author: Alexander Lowen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1938485114
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life, Alexander Lowen shows how the experience of pleasure or pain determines our emotions, thinking, and behavior. Lowen views the body as the outer manifestation of the spirit and defines grace as the divine spirit acting within the body. For the healthy individual the divine spirit is experienced as the natural gracefulness of the body and is reflected in the person's behavior. In a healthy body, movement, feeling, and thinking are integrated in grace and harmony. This book includes body-psychotherapy techniques and exercises aimed at alleviating muscular tension and restoring the body's natural grace. This spiritual grace involves a sense of connectedness to a higher order. In this state of grace we feel a kinship with all living creatures, and recognize our connection to our environment and to the world.

I Can Make This Promise

I Can Make This Promise PDF Author: Christine Day
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062872036
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
In her debut middle grade novel—inspired by her family’s history—Christine Day tells the story of a girl who uncovers her family’s secrets—and finds her own Native American identity. All her life, Edie has known that her mom was adopted by a white couple. So, no matter how curious she might be about her Native American heritage, Edie is sure her family doesn’t have any answers. Until the day when she and her friends discover a box hidden in the attic—a box full of letters signed “Love, Edith,” and photos of a woman who looks just like her. Suddenly, Edie has a flurry of new questions about this woman who shares her name. Could she belong to the Native family that Edie never knew about? But if her mom and dad have kept this secret from her all her life, how can she trust them to tell her the truth now?