| The Secrets of Happiness: Three Thousand Years of Searching for the Good Life Contributor(s): Schoch, Richard (Author) |
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ISBN: 0743292936 ISBN-13: 9780743292931 Publisher: Scribner Book Company OUR PRICE: $17.05 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2008 Annotation: Unhappy is the story of happiness. More than two thousand years ago, when the ancient Greeks first pondered what constitutes "the good life," happiness was considered a civic virtue that demanded a lifetime's cultivation. Not just mere enjoyment of pleasure and mere avoidance of suffering, true happiness was an achievement, not a birthright. Now, in an age of instant gratification and infinite distraction, history professor Richard Schoch takes a refreshingly contemplative look at a question that's as vital today as ever: What does it mean to be happy? Schoch consults some of history's greatest thinkers -- from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas to Buddha -- in his quest to understand happiness in all its hard-won forms. Packed with three thousand years' worth of insights, many long forgotten, "The Secrets of Happiness" is a breath of ancient wisdom for anyone who yearns for the good life. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Self-help | Personal Growth - Happiness - Philosophy | Ethics & Moral Philosophy |
| Dewey: 170 |
| Physical Information: 0.63" H x 5" W x 8.06" (0.63 lbs) 224 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Secrets of Happiness is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of happiness. Combining wit, warmth, and intellectual authority, this book offers us ancient wisdom for modern living. Richard Schoch shows readers how they can enrich their lives by recovering the ancient philosophical and religious traditions of happiness--and then putting them to work in their own lives today. In a journey across cultures and centuries--from the trials of Job to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and from Buddha's Four Noble Truths to the ecstasy of medieval Sufi mystics--Schoch answers questions that, although fundamental to our well-being, are rarely asked: what kind of effort does it take to be happy? do you have a right to be happy? can you be happy if others are unhappy? Although Schoch finds that there is no single answer to these questions, he argues that every strategy for happiness can be placed in one of four categories: Living for Pleasure, Conquering Desire, Transcending Reason, and Enduring Suffering. (The book is divided into these four parts.) The one thing that these disparate strategies do share is that each takes effort. Happiness, Schoch posits, is never an end-point; it is instead a joyful struggle. |