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    Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom...why the Meaningful Life Is Closer Than You Think
    Unavailable
    Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom...why the Meaningful Life Is Closer Than You Think
    Unavailable
    Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom...why the Meaningful Life Is Closer Than You Think
    Audiobook11 hours

    Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom...why the Meaningful Life Is Closer Than You Think

    Written by Jonathan Haidt

    Narrated by George K Wilson

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    This is a book about 10 "Great Ideas." Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world's civilizations - to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives.

    Editor's Note

    Sayings meet science…

    Philosophy meets psychology in this breakdown of conventional wisdom and commonplace maxims like “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” A surprising look at how and why many old adages actually do express a deeper truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGildan Audio
    Release dateAug 8, 2011
    ISBN9781596598812
    Unavailable
    Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom...why the Meaningful Life Is Closer Than You Think

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    Reviews for Happiness Hypothesis

    4.5/5

    41 ratings20 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this book...It appears to be extensively researched and well-sourced...but I think the subtitle just didn't cut it with me. That and the mystical, "higher power", "transcendent" nonsense (despite Haidt's qualification of his personal beliefs) that seemed little more than platitudes.

      I suspect a majority of readers would take something or many things from this book. If you value reason and rationality, I would recommend you look elsewhere. Three stars for the extensive research and bibliography.
    • 5/5
      Excellent, a little dense at times but the ideas are expressed in a way that stays in your head. I regularly tell friends we should all be either on Prozac, meditating or getting cognitive behaviour therapy....(!)
    • 5/5
      Love It What a wonderful book. This book is well written
    • 4/5
      A good read! Marries eastern & western philosophy for a productive life :)
    • 5/5
      Thought provoking and incredibly informative. This is a must read!
    • 4/5
      Jonathan Haidth comes to the "Happiness Hypothesis" by drawing from MANY different sources, ancient, and modern. That I very much enjoyed, as it made the conclusion seem thoroughly researched and pondered. The stories are interesting. Haidth is an atheist, and this fact kept creeping back up in his discourse and the way he expressed his ideas. Nothing wrong with Atheism, but if you happen to adhere to any faith/spiritual doctrine.. then his tone might grind your gears a bit. That's all, otherwise a very insightful and enjoyable book

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Rather than looking at psychic illness, positive psychology considers mental health and happiness. Jonathan Haidt brings together ancient knowledge and new research to give a full picture of the things that contribute to happiness and in so doing gives us a good handbook about the things we need to tackle to improve our own happiness. This is not a series of instructions but rather an explanation - the how and why - of various elements that contribute to the overall level of happiness everyone of us feels.
      Though there's a huge annex of footnotes and further reading, the book is an easy read. This is probably the book into which I put the most highlights and marginal notes. This book can make you happier.
    • 5/5
      First, let me state that this is NOT a self-help book. It is a survey of various ideas concerning happiness that cross various cultural, philosophical and religious boundaries.

      Each idea is examined in the light of the latest neurological, psychological and sociological science. Some are found wanting, some very accurate and some useful in particular circumstances or cases.

      It is a fascinating read, at times depressing because of just poorly our minds work in some cases, but at other times very inspiring. Today we really do have a vast body of knowledge and set of tools to apply to both our own happiness and well-being as well as understand that of others.

      The facts and analysis presented are more broadly applicable - in politics most especially, but he dips into other fields as well.

      I can't thinking of anyone who shouldn't read this book for the knowledge and analysis it contains alone.
    • 4/5
      The author, a professor of moral psychology, did I fine job of gathering insights old and new, to form a well-organized and easy-reading presentation of, in essence, "ways to live a fulfilling life". Not a straight how-to book, and "happiness" is a component, but not the central thesis here. He cites numerous clinical psych studies in his analysis, all quite interesting to know about. I applaud Haidt for steering clear of ideology, and appropriately seeing both sides of the moral push-pull of opinion in religion and society. Eye-opening book for me.
    • 5/5
      Most excellent book, highly recommended.Haidt draws from a variety of traditions to identify large ideas on self perception, morality, happiness, etc. and evaluates each in light of modern, scientific knowledge. The result is highly informative, insightful and fascinating - and at points quite surprising.
    • 5/5
      Several things here to challenge my worldview-- Prozac cf. contact lenses, religion cf. science, optimist cf. pessimist. Thought provoking and inspires change.
    • 5/5
      "Quantity undermines the quality of our engagement. With such a vast and wonderful library spread out before us, we often skim books or read just the reviews. We might already have encountered the Greatest Idea, the insight that would have transformed us had we savored it, taken it to heart, and worked it into our lives." - The Happiness Hypothesis is not a self-help book, but a very well written psychological view of Happiness. Taking concepts from ancient wisdom and the Bible - adding in modern psychological research -- Haidt confirms what the ancients already knew. Happiness comes from the striving and progress, not from having. Happiness comes from relations with others, not things. We should follow the Golden Rule, but it is difficult because it is very easy to see faults in others, but not faults in ourselves. "The mind is divided into parts that sometimes conflict. Like a rider on the back of an elephant, the conscious, reasoning part of the mind has only limited control of what the elephant does."
    • 4/5
      Jonathan Haidt doesn’t believe in angels and doesn’t accept reports from people that do. He does however believe in evolution and is quite convinced it is the operative cause of everything we are and can ever hope to be. So with that premise in mind he explores human happiness.The research he presents is often fascinating, helpful and quite humorous. There is much to be gained by all of us in studying what makes us happy and what we can do to move ourselves into the happy column of life and away from sadness and its always worse than welcome cousin, depression. This is an extremely worthy subject and I would say quite challenging for a determined atheist. Jonathan tells his readers that he is an atheist. I do wonder why Jonathan couldn’t say he was agnostic. It would seem to fit more with his commitment to science and research to say one doesn’t know about God than to put one in the group that believes he has garnered enough evidence to prove that God does not exist. But this is for another day. Regarding the subject of happiness, no matter what spin you put on this, as an atheist, you will not escape its daunting conclusions. Jonathan refers to, and as no surprise, confidently concludes that happiness while not really out there (there is no divine meaning or purpose to life), can only be something that you bring from within. I disagree with that conclusion but do agree with another conclusion of his that Happiness is found not so much in achieving the goal, as it is in the action of pursuing the goal as we relate to people, or engage in activities. This is a valuable insight and Jonathan credits much to ancient wisdom for this understanding. We today, more than not, hear a different message, that happiness is not found in the activity but only in the final getting, having, and acquiring of the things we desire. Jonathan, through much of his research shows that we miss the truth that happiness is really found in the doing, in the action, in the relationship in the activities themselves as they relate to ones goals in life. This is nothing more than Aristotle. Again Jonathan has to remind us of his premise and conclude that it is really evolution that is the driving force behind our happiness. He does suggest that we have some freewill in the process. You can make choices so as to bring on the positive evolutionary effects. Of course all this hypothesizing and research will not quite get yourself off the ground since the most it will get you is “an act as if it is real” kind of experience. This is what makes Jonathan’s task so daunting. For being an atheist and an evolutionist you must conclude that you are really only electrical synapses in a fleshly body with nothing more real than that. This brings me back to angels. Remember the shepherds on the hill watching their flocks and an angel of the Lord appeared bringing good news? It seems to me we really have only two choices, either to accept the testimony of Jonathan and others like him who say, life is only what you can see and test - there is nothing more. Or you can consider that an angel really did bring news. There is hope. Life need not end in death for us to be dissolved back into the dirt to be recycled into some different form of matter. The angel did speak and he spoke of God, love, hope and the resurrection of the body into life everlasting. That is the ancient wisdom of faith. Now there is some real happiness!
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed the way he explored wisdom from older civilizations using what we know today. Happiness is only one of the ideas.
    • 3/5
      And thus we move, logically, to The Happiness Hypothesis. Ben Tanaka, main character of Shortcomings, could use The Happiness Hypothesis. Ginger Pye and the rest of the Pye family apparently intuitively knew The Happiness Hypothesis. Haidt looks at ancient wisdom and compares it to the result of the new science of positive psychology. Some of the things I learned from this book:*Reciprocity is the best guide to life. This is the classic “Do unto others” thought. *There are three effective ways to happiness: meditation, cognitive therapy, and Prozac. *People have good insight about other people, but are terrible in judging themselves. They cannot see their own flaws.*Instead of trying to improve weaknesses, we should work on our strengths. Often we can use a strength to get around a weakness.*The personality is now thought to have three components: (1) our basic and classic traits of neuroticism and extroversion, (2) the ways we characteristically adapt including openness to new experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, and (3) our life story, the way we have made sense of our lives.*It takes adversity to reach our highest levels. Posttraumatic growth is rising to the challenges of problems, which reveals hidden abilities and changes our self-concept.
    • 5/5
      Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist with a background in philosophy. Drawing on this rich foundation, Haidt seeks to answer the question of how people can find happiness and meaning in life. Books about happiness and meaning are common these days, but [The Happiness Hypothesis] is different from the majority of popular psychology offerings. In each of the ten chapters, Haidt considers one great idea - an idea that has its roots in ancient wisdom traditions - and considers what scientific research tells us about these ideas. Haidt considers wisdom and research on conscious vs. subconscious thought processes, individuality vs. altruism, and human growth and development. Throughout the book, we learn that individuals have a happiness set-point (a typical level of happiness), but that contextual conditions and voluntary activities play a role in happiness. Specifically, social relationships and significant work both provide us with connections to something greater than ourselves and ultimately increase our levels of happiness. Although these insights are not unique, the strength of this book is in the way that Haidt puts together evidence from diverse sources to make his points. He does not oversimplify the complexity of the question or the answers. But he does leave readers with a clearer understanding of human nature and the ways in which both the ancient wisdom traditions and modern research can inform modern lives.
    • 5/5
      Profound and ultimately extremely practical synthesis of what makes human beings happy, What other subject is there?
    • 4/5
      A nice overview of the meaning of happiness -- what it is, where it comes from, why we strive for it, how we try to achieve it. Draws on basic, foundational tenets of psychology, philosophy, biology and religion to discuss corroborative concepts of morality, love, virtue, and how these are each learned/known/taught/understood. It's well-written and accessible -- an easy read, I'll be done by tonight -- and also pretty engaging. And reminds me of some important concepts I haven't reviewed since undergrad.I really couldn't get into it when I picked it up last year, on the recommendation of a friend, but whizzed through this time through.
    • 4/5
      An engaging book. The premise is intriguing: does the wisdom of the ages hold up in our modern society and with all that science has revealed? I like how Haidt looks at happiness from this unique perspective. The book is a bit jumbled, and the author at times injects a bit too much enthusiasm, but the ideas presented are of such value (at least to me) that it's easy to forgive any shortcomings. As a parent this book has helped me explain and discuss the idea of having a good life with my children because it's given me new ways to view and describe it.
    • 4/5
      Much of it is very 4-star worthy. Some bits are less so, but overall it is a very good and non-standard treatment of happiness. Much of this book seems "right" to me, and the propositions are supported by data wherever possible.