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 | | The Secrets of Happiness: Three Thousand Years of Searching for the Good Life by Richard Schoch ISBN-10: 9780743292931 ISBN-10: 0-7432-9293-6 ISBN-13: 9780743292931 ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9293-1 Paperback 2008-04-23 Scribner Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description 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. | ||
Reviews | ||
"The Secrets of Happiness" is an insightful, informed, thoughtful and though-provoking self-help book Is the new 'science' of happiness resulting in further dissatisfaction in life? New age teachers would offer up happiness as a consumer right, but The Secrets of Happiness by Richard Schoch shows it isn't that easy - and contends such happiness must be found from within. Philosophy and religion blend in a survey which considers how happiness is conceived, pursued, and misconstrued. "The Secrets of Happiness" is an insightful, informed, thoughtful and though-provoking self-help book that is especially commended to the attention of non-specialist general readers seeking simple happiness in an ever increasingly complicated world. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch | ||
Paths to Happiness This is a superb book! I agree entirely with the two editorial reviews. This is a seriuous discussion of what is truly a happy and meaningful life. The author rejects the "science of happiness" where happiness is defined as simply pleasure and contentment and subjectively "feeling good." He describes the essential views on happiness of utilitarians, epicureans, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians,Muslims, the stoics and Judaism, fairly and sympathetically, how they are similar and how they differ, and what we all can learn from each approach. | ||