Description
Book SynopsisConceptions of Happiness, Revised Edition presents the thesis that happiness does not mean just one thing but many, and that these many meanings have been studied, described, argued, and practiced throughout the centuries in many climes and places. When asked if one is happy, people answer according to their own conception of happiness. Their conception may differ from that of the interrogator, who may not be unaware of this fact. People may also deem themselves happy differently at different times in their lives, depending upon their circumstances and on their own estimate of themselves. Therefore, to think that there is just one meaning of happiness spanning a lifetime does not correspond to the facts of life as we know and experience them. This book presents many views of happiness as espoused by their original founders and developers.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 1. Hinduism Chapter 4 2. Dionysus Chapter 5 3. Lao-Tzu Chapter 6 4. Gautama the Buddha Chapter 7 5. Plato Chapter 8 6. Aristotle Chapter 9 7. The Qôhéleth Chapter 10 8. Epicurus Chapter 11 9. Zeno and Epictetus Chapter 12 10. Saint Augustine Chapter 13 11. Abû Hâmid Al-Ghazâlî Chapter 14 12. Saint Thomas Aquinas Chapter 15 13. Benedict Spinoza Chapter 16 14. Immanuel Kant Chapter 17 15. Jeremy Bentham Chapter 18 16. Arthur Schopenhauer Chapter 19 17. Max Stirner Chapter 20 18. John Stuart Mill Chapter 21 19. Karl Marx Chapter 22 20. Friedrich Nietzsche Chapter 23 21. Sigmund Freud Chapter 24 22. Hermann Hesse Chapter 25 23. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Chapter 26 24. Burrhus F. Skinner Chapter 27 25. Ayn Rand Chapter 28 26. Albert Camus Chapter 29 Epilogue Chapter 30 Index
