Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science

From the acclaimed author of Lying, a brilliant exploration of happiness set in the context of the world’s great philosophers, leaders, writers, and artists

In this smart and timely book, the distinguished moral philosopher Sissela Bok ponders the nature of happiness and its place in philosophical thinking and writing throughout the ages. With nuance and elegance, Bok explores notions of happiness—from Greek philosophers to Desmond Tutu, Charles Darwin, Iris Murdoch, and the Dalai Lama—as well as the latest theories advanced by psychologists, economists, geneticists, and neuroscientists. Eschewing abstract theorizing, Bok weaves in a wealth of firsthand observations about happiness from ordinary people as well as renowned figures. This may well be the most complete picture of happiness yet.

This book is also a clarion call to think clearly and sensitively about happiness. Bringing together very different disciplines provides Bok with a unique opportunity to consider the role of happiness in wider questions of how we should lead our lives and treat one another—concerns that don’t often figure in today’s happiness equation. How should we pursue, weigh, value, or limit our own happiness, or that of others, now and in the future? Compelling and perceptive, Exploring Happiness shines a welcome new light on the heart of the human condition.

• Love: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
• The Course of Love: A Novel
• The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction
• The Art of Loving
• Mayhem: Violence As Public Entertainment (1999 Printing)
• Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth
• Nicomachean Ethics
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
• The Good Life (Hackett Publishing Co.)