Download or read book Rationality and the Pursuit of Happiness written by Michael E. Bernard and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-10-26 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reveals how the principles of rational living identified by Albert Ellis, one of the world’s most influential and popular psychologists, can be used by anyone to achieve lifelong happiness. Reveals the 11 principles of rational living that when put into practice can consistently increase levels of personal happiness Includes selected excerpts from Ellis’ writings, revealing the difference between the psychological architectures of emotional unhappiness and human happiness Presents verbatim transcripts of private counseling sessions, as well as public lectures and demonstrations with people addressing a wide range of personal issues Offers insights into how ‘rationality’ can be used by anyone to reduce the intensity of negative emotions, to increase the frequency of positive emotions and to promote life satisfaction
Download or read book The Virtues of Happiness written by Paul Bloomfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As children, we learn life is unfair: bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. So, it is natural to ask, "Why play fairly in an unfair world? If being immoral will get you what you want and you know you can't get caught, why not do it?" The answers, as argued herein, begin by rejecting the idea that morality and happiness are at odds with one another. From this point of view, we can see how immorality undermines its perpetrator's happiness: self-respect is necessary for happiness, and immorality undermines self-respect. As we see how our self-respect is conditional upon how we respect others, we learn to evaluate and value ourselves, and others, appropriately. The central thesis is the result of combining the ancient Greek conception of happiness (eudaimonia) with a modern conception of self-respect. We become happy, we life the best life we can, only by becoming virtuous: by being as courageous, just, temperate, and wise as can be. These are the virtues of happiness. This book explains why it is bad to be bad and good to be good, and what happens to people's values as their practical rationality develops.
Download or read book Rationality and Happiness written by Jiyuan Yu and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2003 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the relationship between rationality and happiness from ancient Greek philosophy to early Latin medieval philosophy. What connection is there between human rationality and happiness? This issue was uppermost in the minds of the Ancient Greek philosophers and continued to be of importance during the entire early medieval period. Starting with theSocrates of Plato's early dialogues, who is regarded as having initiated the eudaimonistic ethical tradition, the present volume looks at Plato, Aristotle, the Skeptics, Seneca [Stoicism], Epicurus, Plotinus [neo-Platonism], Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, and ends with Abelard, the final major figure in early medieval philosophy. Special efforts are made to reveal and trace the continuity and development of the views on rationality and happiness among these major thinkers within this period. The book's approach is historical, but the topics it treats are relevant to many discussions pursued in contemporary philosophical circles. Specifically, the book aims to make two major contributions to the ongoing development of virtue ethics. First, contemporary virtue ethics often draws distinctions between ancient Greek ethics and modern moral philosophy [mainly utilitarianism and Kantianism], and seeks to model ethics on ancient ethics. In doing so, however, contemporary virtue ethics often ignores the transition from Greek ethics to the early Latin medieval tradition. Second, contemporary virtue-based ethics, in its efforts to seek insights from ancient ethics, centers on virtue. In contrast, in ancient and medieval ethics, virtue is pursued for the sake of happiness [eudaimonia], and virtue is conceived as excellence of rationality. Hence, the relationship between rationality and happiness provides the framework for ethical inquiry within which the discussion of virtue takes place. Contributors: JULIA ANNAS, RICHARD BETT, JORGE J.E. GRACIA, BRAD INWOOD, WILLIAM MANN, JOHN MARENBON, GARETH B. MATTHEWS, MARK L. McPHERRAN, DONALD MORRISON, C.C.W. TAYLOR, JONATHAN SANFORD, JIYUAN YU. Jiyuan Yu is Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguised Professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Download or read book Rationality Is the Way to Happiness written by John Vespasian and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world where philosophy is often reduced to catch-phrases and empty theories, this is a passionate defence of logic and consistency as the keys to happiness. Personal effectiveness, the basis of well-being and success, results from rational goals, workable plans and relentless action. In the areas of career, health, relationships and investments, this essay shows how to let go of wasteful propositions, pursue compatible goals, cultivate perseverance and resilience, minimize problems and maximize opportunities. Inspired by the teachings of Aristotle, Maimonides, Erasmus, Montaigne, Epictetus and Spinoza, the book encourages readers to embrace rationality and adopt a self-reliant, entrepreneurial attitude. EXCERPT FROM THE TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The untold key to success and happiness Ten positive trends rarely reported by the media The way to independent thinking Trust only your own statistics Achieving happiness through rationality Wake up to a sharp vision of reality Important lessons from history In search of principles that make sense 2. Fundamental skills that everybody should master Relentless initiative creates opportunities An active mind looks for alternatives Cultivate perseverance and resilience Avoid waste and embrace frugality Shun overcommitment and worry 3. The easy way to prosperity Select a career where you can make a good living Principles of accelerated learning Using Ancient Mongol tactics to find employment Discard the myth of career planning Growth sectors in the 21st century Those who can sell are always received well 4. Philosophical ideas to make the best of your life Take the perspective of a lifetime Focus on practical solutions Self-confidence arises from preparedness Pursue compatible goals Concentrate your resources on essential tasks 5. Get out of losing situations Immobility is the enemy of achievement Train yourself to face nonsense calmly Throw away unworkable plans Read the writing on the wall Take simple measures to protect yourself You have more options than you think 6. Avoiding major mistakes Preserve your independent thinking Don't make the same mistake as Confucius Entrepreneurship is the opposite of resignation Abandon perfectionism right now Waiting for the world to change is a waste of time 7. How to find love without making a mess of sex Rational values are the basis of great relationships Overcoming the main obstacle to meeting new people The high cost of short-term romantic involvement The entrepreneurial factor in love and friendship What is the crucial success element in dating? Break free from artificial social constraints 8. Saving and investing to secure your future Take control of your financial life Principles of rational investment Techniques for reducing risk How to develop self-confidence as an investor Saving regularly brings peace of mind The advantage of turbulent times 9. Principles of optimal health The teachings of Maimonides Living in accordance with nature How psychology can improve your health Modern theories about prolonging life How some people live to become 100 years old The low-cost approach to good nutrition Effective methods for minimizing stress Sleeping well by natural means 10. Seeking personal growth one day at a time Embrace rational principles The link between personal effectiveness and happiness Become an entrepreneur in your everyday life Do not be discouraged by your limited resources Clear thinking gives you the ultimate advantage It is on slow days when you make big breaks 11. Conclusion The human need for logic and consistency Achieving happiness in a chaotic world Philosophy summarized in a single sentence It takes a while, but it can be done
Download or read book Happiness Rationality and Individual Ideals written by Lynne Ellen McFall and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 1589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Pursuit of Unhappiness written by Daniel M. Haybron and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2008-09-25 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. As a result, we may need to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policymakers, and other students of human well-being."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Action Contemplation and Happiness written by C. D. C. Reeve and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of practical wisdom is one of Aristotle's greatest inventions. It has inspired philosophers as diverse as Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Elizabeth Anscombe, Michael Thompson, and John McDowell. Now a leading scholar of ancient philosophy offers a challenge to received accounts of practical wisdom by situating it in the larger context of Aristotle's views on knowledge and reality. That happiness is the end pursued by practical wisdom is commonly agreed. What is disputed is whether happiness is to be found in the practical life of political action, in which we exhibit courage, temperance, and other virtues of character, or in the contemplative life, where theoretical wisdom is the essential virtue. C. D. C. Reeve argues that the dichotomy is bogus, that these lives are in fact parts of a single life, which is the best human one. In support of this view, he develops innovative accounts of many of the central notions in Aristotle's metaphysics, epistemology, and psychology, including matter and form, scientific knowledge, dialectic, educatedness, perception, understanding, political science, practical truth, deliberation, and deliberate choice. These accounts are based directly on freshly translated passages from many of Aristotle's writings. Action, Contemplation, and Happiness is an accessible essay not just on practical wisdom but on Aristotle's philosophy as a whole.
Download or read book The Quest for the Good Life written by Øyvind Rabbås and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should I live? How can I be happy? What is happiness, really? These are perennial questions, which in recent times have become the object of diverse kinds of academic research. Ancient philosophers placed happiness at the centre of their thought, and we can trace the topic through nearly a millennium. While the centrality of the notion of happiness in ancient ethics is well known, this book is unique in that it focuses directly on this notion, as it appears in the ancient texts. Fourteen papers by an international team of scholars map the various approaches and conceptions found from the Pre-Socratics through Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic Philosophy, to the Neo-Platonists and Augustine in late antiquity. While not promising a formula that can guarantee a greater share in happiness to the reader, the book addresses questions raised by ancient thinkers that are still of deep concern to many people today: Do I have to be a morally good person in order to be happy? Are there purely external criteria for happiness such as success according to received social norms or is happiness merely a matter of an internal state of the person? How is happiness related to the stages of life and generally to time? In this book the reader will find an informed discussion of these and many other questions relating to happiness.
Download or read book The Morality of Happiness written by Julia Annas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-08-19 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient ethical theories, based on the notions of virtue and happiness, have struck many as an attractive alternative to modern theories. But we cannot find out whether this is true until we understand ancient ethics--and to do this we need to examine the basic structure of ancient ethical theory, not just the details of one or two theories. In this book, Annas brings together the results of a wide-ranging study of ancient ethical philosophy and presents it in a way that is easily accessible to anyone with an interest in ancient or modern ethics. She examines the fundamental notions of happiness and virtue, the role of nature in ethical justification and the relation between concern for self and concern for others. Her careful examination of the ancient debates and arguments shows that many widespread assumptions about ancient ethics are quite mistaken. Ancient ethical theories are not egoistic, and do not depend for their acceptance on metaphysical theories of a teleological kind. Most centrally, they are recognizably theories of morality, and the ancient disputes about the place of virtue in happiness can be seen as akin to modern disputes about the demands of morality.
Download or read book Happy Lives and the Highest Good written by Gabriel Richardson Lear and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gabriel Richardson Lear presents a bold new approach to one of the enduring debates about Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: the controversy about whether it coherently argues that the best life for humans is one devoted to a single activity, namely philosophical contemplation. Many scholars oppose this reading because the bulk of the Ethics is devoted to various moral virtues--courage and generosity, for example--that are not in any obvious way either manifestations of philosophical contemplation or subordinated to it. They argue that Aristotle was inconsistent, and that we should not try to read the entire Ethics as an attempt to flesh out the notion that the best life aims at the "monistic good" of contemplation. In defending the unity and coherence of the Ethics, Lear argues that, in Aristotle's view, we may act for the sake of an end not just by instrumentally bringing it about but also by approximating it. She then argues that, for Aristotle, the excellent rational activity of moral virtue is an approximation of theoretical contemplation. Thus, the happiest person chooses moral virtue as an approximation of contemplation in practical life. Richardson Lear bolsters this interpretation by examining three moral virtues--courage, temperance, and greatness of soul--and the way they are fine. Elegantly written and rigorously argued, this is a major contribution to our understanding of a central issue in Aristotle's moral philosophy.
Download or read book The Ayn Rand Lexicon written by Ayn Rand and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prolific writer, bestselling novelist, and world-renowned philosopher, Ayn Rand defined a full system of thought--from epistemology to aesthetics. Her writing is so extensive and the range of issues she covers so enormous that those interested in finding her discussions of a given topic may have to search through many sources to locate the relevant passage. The Ayn Rand Lexicon brings together all the key ideas of her philosophy of Objectivism. Begun under Rand's supervision, this unique volume is an invaluable guide to her philosophy or reason, self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism--the philosophy so brilliantly dramatized in her novels The Fountainhead, We the Living, and Anthem.
Download or read book You Can LEARN to Be HAPPY written by Thota Ramesh and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rational approach to understanding life and happiness. This book provides you practical guidance for day-to-day living. In these days of a mad rush for success, people are unable to find happiness. Lately, people are realizing that being happy can lead to success. In spite of great strides in knowledge and living conditions, we are still struggling to figure out how to live happily. Thota Ramesh has found a way to live happily. He got the answers for "What we need to do to live Happily?", in the spiritual and religious books; and answers for "How to attain that happiness?", in modern Psychology. By applying the knowledge of ancient wisdom combined with modern Psychology, Thota Ramesh has achieved almost 100% happiness by the age of 35. In this book, he has shared that process along with the techniques that he followed. He says being happy is not difficult and anyone can learn it. The methods are simple, but it needs effort. Read this book to learn the practical and rational approach to live happily. While on this journey, you will gain control over your emotions. The emotional control that you gain can help you achieve success in all your endeavors. In his search for happiness, Thota Ramesh has studied a few spiritual books and read books of many famous authors. To name a few, he read "The Naked ape" by Desmond Morris, "Your Erroneous Zones" by Dr. Wayne Dyer, "Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, "A Layman's guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis" by Dr. Eric Berne.
Download or read book Rationality and the Pursuit of Happiness written by Michael E. Bernard and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reveals how the principles of rational living identified by Albert Ellis, one of the world’s most influential and popular psychologists, can be used by anyone to achieve lifelong happiness. Reveals the 11 principles of rational living that when put into practice can consistently increase levels of personal happiness Includes selected excerpts from Ellis’ writings, revealing the difference between the psychological architectures of emotional unhappiness and human happiness Presents verbatim transcripts of private counseling sessions, as well as public lectures and demonstrations with people addressing a wide range of personal issues Offers insights into how ‘rationality’ can be used by anyone to reduce the intensity of negative emotions, to increase the frequency of positive emotions and to promote life satisfaction
Download or read book The Selfish Path to Romance written by Edwin A. Locke and published by . This book was released on 2011-02-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Inspired by the ideas of Ayn Rand"--Cover.
Download or read book Morality and Action written by Warren Quinn and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection contains Warren Quinn's most important contributions to moral philosophy and has been edited for publication by Philippa Foot.
Download or read book Help Yourself to Happiness Through Rational Self counseling written by Maxie C. Maultsby and published by Albert Ellis Institute. This book was released on 1975 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
