Spring 2008 Course Readings for Happiness

Readings for Spring 2008 Happiness Course

• Porter, Eduardo. "All All They Are Saying Is Give Happiness a Chance," NYT editorial, November 12, 2007.

• D.T. Max, "Happiness 101," The New York Times, January, 7, 2007. or thi link

• The Economist, "Economics Discovers Its Feelings," December 23rd edition, 2006.

• Jeffrey Kluger, "How Americans are Living Dangerously," Time Magazine, Nov. 26, 2006

Daniel Kahneman, "Toward a Science of Wellbeing," transcript of a speech, rebroadcast on "All in the Mind," Radio National.

• Robert E. Lane, "Does Money Buy Happiness: A New Look at Income and Utility," Current, Feb 1994 #360, pp. 27-31

• Michael Argyle, "Causes and Correlates of Happiness," in Well-Being: the Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. editors Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener, and Norbert Schwartz. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1999.

• Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2006, Chapter 1: Journey to Elsewhen, pp. 2-29

• Gilbert, Chapter 2: The View from in Here, pp. 29-55

• Gilbert, Chapter 3: Outside Looking In, pp. 55-75

• Happiness in Hellenistic Culture: Stoics, Cynics, and Epicureans.

• Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus

• Diogenes Laertius, Diogenes (of Sinope) the Cynic, also consult Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Epictetus Encheiridion (Handbook) (possibly sections from Arian's Discourse)

• Darrin McMahon, excerpt "Surgery for the Soul," from Happiness: A History, New York, Atlantic Montly Press, 2006, pp. 50-59.

• Love

• de Botton, Alain. Status Anxiety. New York: Vintage International, 2004. "Lovelessness ," pp. 5-10.

• de Botton, Alain. The Consolations of Philosophy. London: Penguin Books, 2000. "Consolations for Inadequacy & Sexual Inadequacy," pp. 115-130.

• Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy, "Consolation for a Broken Heart," pp. 171-202. This chapter mentions Goethe's Sorrows of

• Young Werther, so I thought I'd include this synopsis here.

• Seligman, Chapter 11, " Love."

• Gappy Consciousness in the Past, Present, and Future.

• Gilbert, Chapter 4, "In the Blind Spot of the Mind's Eye," pp. 75-96.

• Gilbert, Chapter 5, "The Hound of Silence," pp. 96-111.

• Gilbert, Chapter 6, "The Future Is Now," pp. 111-127.

• Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, Chapters 1 through 3, Finding Flow, pp. 1-49.

• Money and Status

• Layard, Richard. Happiness: Lessons From a New Science. New York: Penguin Press, 2005, Chapter 4, "If you're so rich, why aren't you happy?", pp. 41-55

• Easterbrook, Greg. The Progress Paradox: How Life gets Better While People Feel Worse. "Chapter 5: More of Everything Except Happiness," pp. 163-188.

• Schwartz, Barry. The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More. "Chapter 4: When Only the Best Will Do" pp. 77-99.

• Flow and Work

• Csikszentmihalyi, Chapter 4, "The Paradox of Work," pp. 49-63.

• Gilbert, Chapter 7, "Time Bombs," pp. 127-151.,
• de Botton, Status Anxiety, "Expectation, " pp. 11-44.

• Savoring & Gratitude

• Harpham, Edward, "Gratitutde in the History of Ideas," in Emmons & McCullough, The Psychology of Gratitude, pp. 19-37.

• Watkins, Philip, "Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being,"in Emmons & McCullough, The Psychology of Gratitude, pp. 167-195.

• Bryant, Fred, Chatper 1, "Concepts of Savoring" and Chapter 8, "Enhancing Savoring," in SavoringLawrence Erlbaum Associtates, 2007, pp. 1-25 & 198-216.

• Leisure and Relationships

• Csikszentmihalyi, Chapter 5, "The Risks and Opportunities of Leisure," pp. 64-77.

• Csikszentmihalyi, Chapter 6, "Relationships and the Quality of Life," pp. 78-96.

• Resilience, Meaningfulness, and the Psychological Immune System

• Gilbert, Chapter 8, "Paradise Glossed," pp. 151-172.

• Gilbert, Chapter 9, "Immune to Reality," pp. 172-195.

• Happiness in Modernity

• McMahon, Chapter 4, "Self-Evident Truths," pp. 197-252.

• McMahon, Chapter 6, "Liberalism and Its Discontents," pp. 312-363.

• Expectations, Memories, and the Wisdom of the Crowd

• Gilbert, Chapter 10, "One Bitten," pp. 195-212.

• Gilbert, Chapter 11, "Reporting Live from the Future," pp. 212.

• Death

• You might want to read this wiki page on the idea of: Memento Mori.
• From the radio program "To the Best of Our Knowledge: "HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY," including the following segments: Happiness Studies - Dave Myers, History of the Smile - Angus Trumble, Progress Paradox - Gregg Easterbrook, 21 Grams - Guillermo Arriaga, Coping with Death - Loren Ladner. I'm primarily interested in the last segment, but you may want to listen to the whole thing (about 55 minutes). You can download the mp3 by right-clicking here or go to the radio show's website at www.ttbook.org and look up the Feb. 13, 2005 show. For more information about the show clickhere.
• Marquis de Sade, "Dialogue between a Priest and Dying Man".

"Printable version: Dialogue between a Priest and Dying Man".

• Michel de Montainge, Essay 19, "That to study Philosophy is to Learn to Die" Careful! Don't print the whole document, just copy and paste the one Essay for this reading.
• Look at a couple of Wikipedia articles to get some quick knowledge: Bardo Thodol, Six Realms

Browse the Bardo Thodol online

• Lecture Notes for Death Class Audio summary of point from class

• Chapter 9, "The Love of Fate" Csikszenthihalyi.