Happiness ─ A Philosopher's Guide

A huge bestseller in Europe, Frederic Lenoir’s Happiness is an exciting journey that examines how history’s greatest philosophers and religious figures have answered life’s most fundamental question: What is happiness and how do I achieve it?

From the ancient Greeks on—from Aristotle, Plato, and Chuang Tzu to the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad; from Voltaire, Spinoza, and Schopenhauer to Kant, Freud, and even modern neuroscientists—Lenoir considers the idea that true and lasting happiness is indeed possible.

In clear language, Lenoir concisely surveys what the greatest thinkers of all time have had to say on the subject, and, with charming prose, raises provocative questions:

· Do we have a duty to be happy?
· Is there a connection between individual and collective happiness?
· Is happiness contagious?
· Is there a difference between pleasure and happiness?
· Can unhappiness and happiness coexist?
· Does our happiness depend on our luck?

Understanding how civilization’s best minds have answered those questions, Lenoir suggests, not only makes for a fascinating reading experience, but also provides a way for us to see us how happiness, that most elusive of feelings, is attainable in our own lives.

FREDERIC LENOIR is a philosopher, sociologist, and religious historian, and the author of numerous essays, books, and novels translated into over twenty languages. He is a professor at L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, one of France’s elite universities, and is the editor of Le Monde des religions, a bimonthly magazine that is part of France’s leading newspaper, Le Monde. He is also the producer and host of the weekly program about religion and philosophy on France Culture radio.

ANDREW BROWN’s most recent translations include works by Proust, Zola, Flaubert, Stendhal, Rabelais, and Baudelaire.