{"product_id":"9780670875023","title":"Better Living In The Pursuit Of Happiness From Plato To Prozac","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"BookPageMetadataSection__description\" data-testid=\"description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"TruncatedContent\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-testid=\"contentContainer\" class=\"TruncatedContent__text TruncatedContent__text--large TruncatedContent__text--expanded\" tabindex=\"-1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"DetailsLayoutRightParagraph\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"DetailsLayoutRightParagraph__widthConstrained\"\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"Formatted\"\u003eWhat is happiness and how can we achieve it? Although many North Americans assume that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right, ask us to define it and we're stumped. In an era of mass marketing, pharmaceuticals, and wellness seminars, too often happiness becomes a matter of swallowing a bright pill, buying the right sneakers, or enrolling in a crash course in attitudinal adjustment (Forget your troubles--as Sinatra sang--come on, get happy!). Yet happiness, writes Kingwell, \"is too important a subject to be left to advertisers, self-help gurus, psycho-pharmacologists and cut-rate therapists.\" In other words, happiness is\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eserious stuff\u003c\/i\u003e, giving rise to questions both vexing and profound: \"We could not confront the problems of happiness without beginning the philosophical investigation of what it is to be human.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlending cultural criticism, philosophy, history, and personal anecdote,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBetter Living\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis Kingwell's attempt to \"probe... and ponder... to investigate happiness philosophically, in the best sense of that much abused word.\" This doesn't mean uncovering a simple formula for happiness, but rather asking more questions than he answers. Kingwell's range is broad and impressive. The kind of thinker who's equally at ease discussing Aristotle and Star Trek, Bentham and Roseanne, he samples, for his edification and ours, a smattering of contemporary solutions to our creeping malaise, enrolling in a personal happiness seminar at the Options Institute, sampling Prozac and St. John's wort.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBetter Living\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis sharp and deep and endearing and funny--a hipster's antidote to\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBecome Happy in Eight Minutes\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThankfully, Kingwell ultimately admits that he\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003ehas\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003egrasped a few basic truths about his subject. The truly happy life, he offers, lies in living both fairly and well--although this requires thoughtfulness and effort. \"Human happiness, sustained in both virtuous action and vigorous contemplation, is possible on this benighted earth.\"\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Svenja Soldovieri\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"BookPageMetadataSection__genres\" data-testid=\"genresList\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Mark Kingwell (CA)","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":42785246544032,"sku":"9780670875023","price":10.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/8637\/5072\/products\/631451.jpg?v=1673813310","url":"https:\/\/rivendell-books.com\/products\/9780670875023","provider":"Rivendell Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}