Exploring Happiness: From Aristotle to Brain Science [Hardcover]

Sissela Bok (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2010

In this smart and timely book, the distinguished moral philosopher Sissela Bok ponders the nature of happiness and its place in philosophical thinking and writing throughout the ages. With nuance and elegance, Bok explores notions of happiness—from Greek philosophers to Desmond Tutu, Charles Darwin, Iris Murdoch, and the Dalai Lama—as well as the latest theories advanced by psychologists, economists, geneticists, and neuroscientists. Eschewing abstract theorizing, Bok weaves in a wealth of firsthand observations about happiness from ordinary people as well as renowned figures. This may well be the most complete picture of happiness yet.

This book is also a clarion call to think clearly and sensitively about happiness. Bringing together very different disciplines provides Bok with a unique opportunity to consider the role of happiness in wider questions of how we should lead our lives and treat one another—concerns that don’t often figure in today’s happiness equation. How should we pursue, weigh, value, or limit our own happiness, or that of others, now and in the future? Compelling and perceptive, Exploring Happiness shines a welcome new light on the heart of the human condition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For as long as human beings have been capable of articulating needs beyond basic survival, one subject has occupied their thoughts perhaps more than any other: happiness. How do we achieve it? How do we maintain it? If it springs from deception (of self or others), as has been suggested, is it any less valid? Thinkers great and small have wrestled with questions such as these for millennia. Bok seeks to synthesize differing opinion and explore the many views on happiness-from philosophers to neuroscientists-and organizes her findings around themes such as luck, illusion, and transience. Happiness is such a subjective concept that it's difficult to imagine an author managing to even touch on it, let alone offer a comprehensive survey. Still, Bok culls a careful collection of thoughts into a surprisingly dense philosophical examination, chronicling what great thinkers have had to say about the subject. Though the title may suggest something from the self-help shelf, this is indeed an exploration, not a guide; readers who want help getting happy should look elsewhere. END

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Confronted by a welter of conflicting definitions, eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope despaired of establishing a meaning for happiness. Less easily discouraged, Bok acknowledges the contradictions in the diversity of perspectives, yet she converts these contradictions into openings for deeper inquiry. Readers will contemplate the tension between, for instance, Seneca’s insistence on virtue as the basis for happiness and La Mettrie’s affirmation of self-indulgence as its true fount. In a wide-ranging survey of philosophical thought, readers weigh contrasting claims about happiness proffered by the joyfully devout and the bemusedly skeptical; by the gregarious socialite and the introspective recluse; by the champions of genetic determinism and the defenders of individual agency. Merely examining such a diverse range of theories will enrich readers’ thinking. Bok, however, looks to modern research to winnow wheat from chaff. Investigations in neurophysiology, for example, have exploded long-held assumptions about how optimism generates happiness. Survey sociology has now discredited Aristotle’s claim that advancing age means diminished happiness. Still, some knotty questions resist empirical assessment: Is true happiness the piercing exultation of a singular moment, or the gratifying culmination of an entire lifetime? What, in any case, guarantees happiness hereafter? Bok lifts her topic above merely subjective opinion into a probing intellectual analysis. --Bryce Christensen

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (August 24, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300139292
• ISBN-13: 978-0300139297
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #246,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Felicitous reading September 1, 2010

By Jay C. Smith

Format:Hardcover

In this splendid little book Sissela Bok productively explores three perspectives on happiness: accounts of individuals' experiences of it; relevant writings of philosophers, theologians, and historians; and pertinent emerging findings from psychology, economics, genetics, and the brain sciences. She attends both to the empirical evidence about actual happiness (often over-looked by humanists) and to the links between happiness and virtue or moral excellence (often missed by scientists). She argues for "the greatest possible freedom and leeway in the pursuit of happiness, subject to... moral limits."

Some definitions of "happiness" place more emphasis on objective conditions and others on subjective feelings. Bok concludes that there is no single definition that should exclude all others, that there is something to be gained from looking at several together.

Her open interdisciplinary approach leads her to illuminating insights regarding several stimulating happiness questions and issues. A sample follows, with selected responses she discusses indicated in parentheses: What would be wrong with total happiness induced by an "Experience Machine," one which stimulates your brain so that you would always believe you were happy (a lot, according to Nozick)? Is happiness even possible (Russell yes, Freud no)? Is striving to be virtuous the only way to be happy (Plato), or if you strive to be happy will you necessarily exercise virtues (Epicurus)? Is happiness primarily a matter of satisfying desires (Seneca), or more a matter of controlling and shaping desires (the Stoics)? Are there biological set-points that influence our happiness levels (yes, but not definitively and the range of possibilities is broad, according to contemporary research)? Is it all right if we hold certain illusory or false beliefs that contribute to our happiness, if we deceive ourselves (some psychologists yes, Kant no)? Can we be too happy, too resilient (yes says Bok, it can make us inattentive to the needs of others)? Are most humans happy, at least moderately so (yes, but social conditions matter, says the research)?

Bok relies quite a bit on recent social science research on "subjective well-being." Readers seeking clues for how to be happy might learn something from the findings that she summarizes. In particular, it would be desirable to cultivate healthy social contacts with family, friends, and others. Yet no particular single factor, even health, is truly necessary for people to feel satisfied with their lives. One should be cautious, too, in interpreting the research, if only because of correlation issues: are people healthier because they are happy, or happier because they are more healthy, for instance?

Inevitably, some readers will find Bok has not included or sufficiently emphasized facets of happiness that they believe merit more attention. If I had to pick one of my own it would be that she neglects to say much about how happiness depends in part on people's comparisons of themselves to others. More income, for example, contributes to happiness, but less so or not at all if everyone else has more income too -- it is one's relative position that seems to matter. Findings like this have implications that Bok does not explore here. But this is just a small quibble with what is as intelligent and informative a survey essay on the philosophy and psychology of happiness as I have come across.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars deeply researched and profoundly enjoyable September 28, 2010

By Hazel Henderson

Format:Hardcover

This deeply researched and profoundly enjoyable book gets to the heart of the new intellectual fashions in studying human happiness. Sissela Bok's breathtaking tour of history and cultures from antiquity to today's brain science is quite the best grounding needed by any serious researcher into this tricky domain. Most efforts to define "happiness," let alone measure its many expressions whether subjective or objective, still fall short.

I relished Exploring Happiness for another personal reason: I knew and admired Sissela Bok's parents, the well-known and respected Swedish scholars Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal, who clearly nurtured their daughter's wide-ranging, free-thinking mind. I also read Sissela Bok's husband, Derek Bok's study of the field of happiness research and measurement. These two books are complementary. Sissela's approach is more philosophical while Derek's is more instrumental and conventionally focused within mainstream policy paradigms.

I learned far more from Sissela Bok's Exploring Happiness as a student, writer, researcher and practitioner for over 30 years of social measurements of "success," "progress," "satisfaction," and quality of life. I became skeptical of the currently fashionable focus on happiness for many of the same reasons discussed in this book. Defining happiness is almost impossible, while measuring it both subjectively and objectively is fraught with intellectual traps and dire policy implications. As a co-organizer of the Beyond GDP Conference in the European Parliament in 2007, it was evident how the "happiness" focus could lead to regressive policies: if "happiness" is subjective and culturally conditioned, as much research suggests, then why should governments worry too much about social welfare? Shockingly, this profoundly conservative view of several influential economists was embraced by many officials.

Experts from many countries pointed out other traps: a Brazilian pointed out that "happiness" to a resident of Rio de Janeiro might simply mean a reduction in violence, while an Indian remarked that to a commuter in Mumbai, happiness might mean an uncrowded railway station and on-time trains. Others pointed to Bhutan and its developing Gross National Happiness Index (GNH) which has caught popular imagination and media attention worldwide. Critics point out that too much focus on GNH could ignore dire living conditions for many Bhutanese and the extent to which their sense of "happiness" might be linked to their ethnic identities and dislike of other ethnic groups in Bhutan.

My own work has focused on correcting the obvious errors in GDP about which I have elaborated in my Paradigms in Progress (1991, 1995) and many later books and articles, as well as my own Country Futures Indicators © which became the basis for the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators I developed with the Calvert Group of socially responsible investment funds in 2000 and regularly update at [...]

I agree with Sissela Bok that all such studies and measures of "happiness," satisfaction and quality of life must be multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, using a wide variety of metrics - far beyond the money-denominated indices such as GDP. This is why I have favored the "dashboard" approach, measuring a wide range of phenomena such as the 12 indicators: education, employment, energy, environment, health, human rights, income, infrastructure, national security, public safety, re-creation and shelter that we use in the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators. I also welcome the new effort of the State of the USA, pioneered by Christopher Hoenig, and the support by Derek Bok for their multi-disciplinary "dashboard" approach. The intellectual partnership of Sissela and Derek Bok will enrich the search for measuring wellbeing and quality of life for years to come.

Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy and co-creater of the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's take an interesting walk with a curious person April 18, 2011

By Digital Rights

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

You can't help but be pulled along by Sissela Bok's curiosity and intellect. "Exploring Happiness" is a treat for those looking to reacquaint themselves with a broad range of thinkers, philosophers and theologians contemplating what is happiness or what makes us happy. The book is presented in series of opposing views almost as a debate with some guidance to resolution which is then left up to the reader.

For example, does one take the view of Aristotle that we should pursue Happiness broadly or through limitations? The Stoics say happiness comes from eliminating distractions and aiming for a simple life.

Similarly is someone who appears too happy actually delusional? Freud might say he is whether by taking up religion or simply choosing to see the world from rose colored glasses. Or is there a line in the sand before which imagination and illusion are healthy and positively reinforcing? Bertrand Russell would likely encourage such consideration. Robert Nozick would argue that extreme delusion steals one's free will to determine whether or not you are happy. In his analogy why not just put every in an Experience Machine and impose thoughts or imprint memories. But he concludes that that would not lead to happiness.

And what about the material world? Bok shows that overtime the world is generally "getting happier". She makes a persuasive argument that despite the horrible wars of the 20th century people are measurably happier than previous generations.

Then there is the question of virtue. Aristotle or Kant might argue that you cannot be happy with out first pursuing virtue; that they go hand and hand. Epicurus would argue that happiness leads to virtue. But does it? Bok digs up an ancient tyrant Phalaris of 570 bc Sicily. His evil deeds are described here and yet he appears to be happy. Unfortunately there are many more like that throughout history. She points out that happiness that does not hurt others must go hand and hand with empathy.

Often Bok comes back to Aristotle. His views were more nuanced and deeper. He saw that virtue alone was not sufficient. He argued that you need education, good health, wealth, friendships and a good reputation.

What I found interesting as Bok moves forward it does not appear that our understanding of happiness has improved. Freud and Russell were not particularly optimistic that people could find happiness (she does a great job placing them in a particularly trying time - pre WWII Europe). She shows us that following Shopenhauer advice to lead a more solitary life may actually make you less happy.

Bok suggests that truthfulness as proposed by Immanuel Kant may come the closest to resolving the conflicts of happiness with free will and denial and delusion which can lead to unhealthy self esteem (my words not hers) or substance abuse in hopes of reaching greater happiness.

This is wonderful book. It's both demanding on the brain and requires attention but provokes one to think and the mind to wonder. Here are all the ingredients to happiness. Here are the great thinkers pondering the questions. Here are some explanations now continue on your own path.