Previous Course Reading Lists

Schedule of Readings and Topics Spring 2008 Happiness Class

Gilbert, Stumbling Onto Happiness

Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, Flow

Epicurus,

Epictetus

De Botton, Status Anxiety, Consolations

McMahon, History of Happiness

First Day of Class Information, Introductory lecture and discussion on Happiness.

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

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

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

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

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

6. This chart, and to a lesser extent this one, make a good place to begin a discussion about the interest in economics in happiness research.

Correlates of Happiness

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

2. 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. 353-73. Don't forget this page, which replaces one that didn't scan well. Prospection and Subjectivity in Cognitive Psychology and Measurement of Happiness.

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

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

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

Add background material on Platonic/Artistotelian views of happiness in preparation for next week's return to the ancients.

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

1. Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus

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

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

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

Love

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

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

3. 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.

4. Seligman, Chapter 11, " Love."

5. Something from Gottman's work, probably in lecture.

Short discussion of Diogenes of Sinope, finishing from last week.

Gappy Consciousness in the Past, Present, and Future.

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

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

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

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

Money and Status

1. 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

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

3. 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.

We'll devote 1/2 of tonight's class to the Mid-term. I'll probably move some of the reading here to next week. Stay tuned.

Expectations and Predictions about Future Preferences

Gilbert, Chapter 7, "Time Bombs," pp. 127-151.,

de Botton, Status Anxiety, "Expectation, " pp. 11-44.

Savoring & Gratitude

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

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

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

See Course Wiki under Savoring and Gratitude for pdf of readings.

Leisure and Relationships

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

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

Resilience, Meaningfulness, and the Psychological Immune System

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

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

Happiness in Modernity

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

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

Expectations, Memories, and the Wisdom of the Crowd

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

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

Death

We'll be integrating things we've already read about death with the specific goal of understanding the importance of our attitude toward death for happiness.

You might want to read this wiki page on the idea of: Memento Mori.

1. 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.

2. Marquis de Sade, "Dialogue between a Priest and Dying Man".

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

4. 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.

5. Look at a couple of Wikipedia articles to get some quick knowledge: Bardo Thodol, Six Realms

6. Browse the Bardo Thodol online

7. Lecture Notes for Death Class Audio summary of point from class

"To love that well, which thou must leave ere long" Sonnet 73, Shakespeare Concluding Statements on Happiness Tonight we sum up with some "concluding" chapters from various authors on key elements in their "philosophy of happiness":

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

2. Here's a little piece on fate from last year. Sorry it's so rough and incomplete.

Student Presentations of Work, Reports, and Findings. Comparison of work on Personal Philosophies of Happiness May 06 The class final is this evening at 8pm. It should take about 2 hours.