THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS: FINDING MODERN TRUTH IN ANCIENT WISDOM PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Jonathan Haidt | 320 pages | 26 Dec 2006 | The Perseus Books Group | 9780465028023 | English | , : Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom PDF Book

This is the reason why I am going to reread it, probably next ye When you read a book for a second time, you realize how some other things you learned meanwhile has affected how you consume it and even your perception of the messages usually change, at least slightly. If you're looking for books to understand the human mind and how we work, I would recommend "Thinking Fast and Slow" Kahneman , "Predictably Irrational" Ariely , and "Drive" Pink ahead of this book. But once he begins to tell the losers of this gamble what they can do to be happy anyway, I found myself becoming a crank. Posttraumatic growth is rising to the challenges of problems, which reveals hidden abilities and changes our self-concept. I think Haidt's arguments may have more intellectual honesty behind them than Gladwell but I'm still not convinced - and at least with Gladwell I got a good story out of it. Details if other :. I could probably give this book two stars if I hadn't just got my fill of evo-psy smarm from . New York: Basic Books. How we can ascend to great heights or fall to tragic depths. Average rating 4. Sales techniques are designed to exploit this instinct. Sort order. Really, all of us could benefit from reading some of these books on cognitive science that are being written these days. His treatment of morality also often runs into contradictions at the meta-normative level. My two favorites: he laments the change in the notion of morality from a "character ethics" inculcating moral virtues to a "quandary ethics" focusing on moral reasoning, and endorses David Wilson's interpretation of religion as an interlocking of genetic and cultural adaptations that enhance peace, harmony, and cooperation within the group for the express purpose of increasing the group's ability to compete with other groups. Sex and death and bodies feel plenty sacred enough for me. There can be no denying that modern democratic societies are tremendous advances over other forms of social organization. But somewhere in the middle, it loses itself in theological arguments. I talked with Bill Moyers about the new book, here. According to Haidt, science has finally revealed how to be happy. After this worldview was described, the book began to change and some wonderful and powerful images began to surface. When Phyllis Curott, a high-powered Manhattan lawyer began exploring Witchcraft, she discovered a spiritual movement that defied all stereotypes. My interest in correcting my cognitive failings largely emanates from my concern with my ability to grasp the truth. Haidt looks at what has to say about this, beginning with the work of Daniel Batson on cheating and self-justification, [1] mentioning Robert Wright 's description of our "constitutional ignorance" of hypocrisy in The Moral Animal , and moving on to work by Deanna Kuhn and David Perkins on confirmation bias and Roy Baumeister 's work on "The Myth of Pure Evil. The title fails, however, to convey the breadth and depth of Haidt's search, which touches on philosophy, psychology, economics, evolution, and cognitive science, and skips effortlessly across the centuries, from the Stoics' philosophical minimalism to Ben Franklin's pragmatism to Robert Cialdini's work on Influence. Many of the clues come from an understanding of the workings of the human mind—much of the book is devoted to this, starting with a very readable discussion of brain physiology and its impact on human responses. Jul 03, Mehrsa rated it really liked it. Community Reviews. Against the information-processing models of the mind popularized in the 20th Century, he argues that the majority of our mental processes are automatic, requiring no conscious attention. Jul 24, Deb Readerbuzz Nance rated it really liked it Shelves: happiness. This leads in the Fourth Chapter to a description of the tendency that people have of seeing faults in others more readily than in themselves, which by simply realizing we might go to some length to rectify and thus come closer to living by the Golden Rule. Trivia About The Happiness Hyp The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Writer

I intend to read this book again in a year or two. Outsiders beware! First of all there is a tone to this book that I thought from the beginning was really going to be a problem for me. I loved Haidt's most recent book, "". Here, our general tendencies toward motivated reasoning and confirmation bias manifest themselves in our aptitude at finding excuses for our bad behaviour while failing to extend the same courtesy to others. These books are backed up by experimental evidence instead of just conjecture and in the end you can leave the philosophy behind. Haidt documents the evolution of the human mind, producing an overarching narrative that explains everything from the use of gossip and prozac to mental tendencies that steer men away from their stated values and towards self-destruction. American 1st Edition. Haidt discusses "the meaning of life," making the distinction between a purpose for life and a purpose within life. When I realized the ambition of the book, I got much more interested. The way out of suffering is obviously partly its relief, but helping people find their own happiness is more likely to succeed long term. I think this book is the best of the recent spate of books on happiness and Jon Haidt has done some really cool work of his own on disgust, religion, morality that feeds into this book. Haidt, on the other hand, comes across as attempting to "convert" the reader, which can set up some resistance. I expect I'll come back to this book and reread it every few years, because it's just so rich with information. Haidt, however, takes you behind the curtain, and provides a look at what exactly is going on in your brain and the evolutionary logic behind it. As someone without religion I can see how having a belief that there is someone an infinite father figure, generally watching over you and who is concerned for your well-being, would be a comfort and would probably promote happiness. To ask other readers questions about The Happiness Hypothesis , please sign up. Download as PDF Printable version. I also really liked that this book presses home the idea that we are a social animal and that as a social animal we really do need to make contact with other animals of our species to be happy. Then our inclination to enshrine our intellects and idolize our own rationality might be tempered. Some of those conditions are within you, such as coherence among the parts and levels of your personality. You might even call Haidt a modern-day Hegelian, for trying to reconcile these through his dialectic. The author explores the nature of happiness, its properties and sources, with the end-goal of teaching the reader HOW to be happy. With that said, the title is appropriate; Haidt is chiefly concerned with what's responsible for making humans happy. I enjoyed it, and it influences me to this day. And if you don't come to peace with that, well -- really, who can? One can hardly choose to have a religious awakening or endure a crisis. The scope of the book is so broad that the title becomes misleading. Love and work give a sense of meaning to life. I think that's one example of why I felt a little as though he was trying to suck me into his way of thinking, while I perceived Kahneman as enlightening me. I discovered this book through Switch , by Chip and Dan Heath, wh I've been slogging away at this book for nearly a month, which is unusual for me. Aug 31, Michael rated it it was amazing Shelves: psych- business-self-improvement. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Reviews

Although not every part is enthralling, this book has taught me, personally, so much. A body-positive call to arms that's as inspirational as it is practical, from Instagram star Megan Jayne Crabbe For generations, women have been convinced that true happiness only comes when we hit that goal weight, shrink ourselves down, and change This is a book about ten Great Ideas. These depressive distortions are direct relatives to those that scare up trouble in all of our lives, and Haidt provides an excellent primer on how to exorcise your cognitive demons through a few different means, thereby improving the way you think and possibly making you happier. Trivia About The Happiness Hyp Thanks in advance. Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. It seems to be a great book. But from the superficiality of relationships in the age of social media and online dating to the alienated wage labour of market capitalism, from the excessive individualism of consumer culture to the negative liberty of liberal self-understanding, it seems that we in the West have become uniquely blind to some of the most important sources of human happiness. View all 3 comments. Barrett Jay Belsky David F. Something that quotes the ancient wisdom, but doesn't add as much commentary. Haidt suggests personal work to understand and improve ourselves as individuals, offering up meditation, cognitive therapy and Prozac as the three main pathways to this retraining. I seem to get good feedback from others I have suggested it to. His treatment of morality also often runs into contradictions at the meta-normative level. Anyone think it might be fine to be sad about that? We are like the proverbial drunken man looking for his car keys under the street light. I found the earlier psychology studies and experiments to be more interesting and relevant. Non-fiction is not my usual milieu, but this was a gift from a family member so here I am. View all 9 comments. Overall, I recommend this one. You already know the ideas common on your own side. This one written years earlier contains a lot of fascinating insights, but it seemed to me a little weaker. Gladwell is a great storyteller. I give it 5 stars as the best short book about social psychology and the meaning of life in a while. Before Haidt, I was aware that our brains appeared to systematically work against our best interest, and that these tendencies manifested in more general cognitive biases. A society without conservatives would lose many of the social structures and constraints that Durkheim showed are so valuable. But perhaps, emotionally engaging too. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Going in, I was skeptical - the premise sounded like some sort of self-help hand wavy junk. I remember settling down on the couch for a long, boring read as I judged by the barefaced cover and a skim over the title. American 1st Edition. Haidt concludes by arguing that the ancient idea of Yin and Yang turns out to be the wisest idea of all. The elephant is not bad. You may need to train the elephant more. Many of the clues come from an understanding of the workings of the human mind—much of the book is devoted to this, starting with a very readable discussion of brain physiology and its impact on human responses. Johnson .

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At the end of the book he returns to one of my pet favorite themes, and explores how moral authority and religiosity arose through evolutionary processes. Of particular usefulness to the planning field, or at least for understanding the dynamic of the meeting I attended, is the description of how the human mind is divided and often in conflict, resulting in a situation where feelings take preference over reasoning. When Phyllis Curott, a high-powered Manhattan lawyer began exploring Witchcraft, she discovered a spiritual movement His metaphor is a rider on the back of an elephant in which the conscious mind is the rider and the unconscious mind is the elephant. And in Haidt, unlike Kahneman, the reader meets illustrious people from history and their ideas--prophets and poets and philosophers. Adversity at the right time in life, as Robert Sternberg 's research on wisdom shows, can make people more compassionate and better able to balance the needs of self and others. Haidt tries to take a Gladwellian approach to his book: here's an idea, here's some cherry-picked research, here's an insightful quote, and here's a relevant anecdote to hammer the point home. And you can too, if you find "love, work, and connection to something larger. Other editions. He explores different cultures both in religion and in other developmental aspects and comes up with his own Happiness Hypothesis. I wish the rest of the book stuck to the author's concise summary a little bit better. People too easily ignored the positive aspects of the project—avoidance of sprawl, better traffic flow from a new street network—and dwelled only on potential, if unlikely, negative effects. It turns out it is sometimes very hard to control what our elephant does. Though I have never taken it myself so I may be missing out. The mind will never have full control, the elephant will never disappear. The Happiness Hypothesis's big recurring metaphor is that the mind is a rider on an elephant. In my opinion, a book like this is made to be read, absorbed, reread, and discussed. The automatic emotional reactions of the "elephant" affective priming guide us throughout our lives. A tiny sampling of material: "But recent research in psychology suggests that Buddha and Epictetus may have taken things too far. Captains of Consciousness offers a historical look at the origins of the advertising industry and One can hardly choose to have a religious awakening or endure a crisis. Some examples of Haidt's thinking which I love: We need each other because each of us has a blind spot regarding ourselves. Mar 07, Julie rated it really liked it Shelves: business-and-society , religion-philosophy-spirituality. It may simply be too large to control or not trained well by the rider. And how many of those resolutions have you made several years in a row? Finished reading this last night. For me there's a big difference between saying 'look! My interest in correcting my cognitive failings largely emanates from my concern with my ability to grasp the truth. Even better, he cites research that people who maintain strong social connections, belong to groups, have religious faith, have strong marriages, and help others are more optimistic and happier. . That's my one quip on the book--for some reason, it just can't be that Prozac is the secret to happiness. I think Haidt's arguments may have more intellectual honesty behind them than Gladwell but I'm still not convinced - and at least with Gladwell I got a good story out of it. Later chapters use psychology, neurology, biology, and anthropology to explain the sometimes-confusing world of our minds and our societies. Sex and death and bodies feel plenty sacred enough for me. For this new edition Stuart Ewen, one of our foremost interpreters of popular culture, has written Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. It is hard for me to imagine much of this being especially revelatory. Calling on Robert Cialdini 's "six weapons of influence," Haidt describes ways in which understanding the deep workings of reciprocity can help to solve problems in our social lives and guard against the many ways that we can be manipulated. Quotes I'd like to remember from the book: "Our minds are loose confederations of parts, but we identify with and pay too much attention to one part: conscious verbal thinking. Even faced with a plethora of facts, figures and testimonials to the contrary, many people held fast to their belief that the project—designed to mimic the design and spacing of the clustered houses already in the village center—would result in traffic congestion, loss of views and lost sleep due to noisy neighbors. But from the superficiality of relationships in the age of social media and online dating to the alienated wage labour of market capitalism, from the excessive individualism of consumer culture to the negative liberty of liberal self-understanding, it seems that we in the West have become uniquely blind to some of the most important sources of human happiness. Hi, this would probably be my next book to read. 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