Happiness

Wiki Pages for Alfino's Happiness Course

This page has a variety of information related to the Happiness Class, taught by Dr. Mark Alfino at Gonzaga University. It is intended to supplement the course website.

• The most recent version of the course website is available online.
• Spring 2008 Professor's Blog - Happiness
• Meditation Exercises
• Savoring Exercises
• Gratitude Exercises
• The Movie List for Happiness
• [| Daniel Gilbert on TED]

Quote of the Month

"As for me, then, I love life, and cultivate it. . . I do not go about wishing that it should lack the need to eat and drink, and it would seem to me no less excusable a failing to wish that need to be doubled; ... nor that we should beget children insensibly with our fingers or our heels, but, rather, with due respect, that we could also beget them voluptuously with our fingers and heels; nor that the body should be without desire and without titillation" Montaigne, Complete Essays, 855

Big Course Questions

1. What are the significant new findings in economics and psychology regarding well-being? What are the implications, if any, of these findings?
2. What are some of the key insights on the topic of happiness of philosophical, cultural, and religious thinkers throughout human history?
3. What role does pleasure play in happiness?
4. What role does fate and luck play in happiness?
5. What role does wealth play in happiness?
6. What role does love and intimacy play in happiness?
7. To what extent can we influence our general happiness by the things we do?
8. Can you significantly alter your level of happiness? Can you change how you think, behave, and what you emphasize in life to change your level of happiness?
9. Is it true that money does not make you happy?
10. What, if any, outcomes are needed for happiness?
11. How objective, real, subjective is happiness?

Lecture Notes from the Death Class

Death and Happiness Class