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Review
Mark Vernon is one of the most thoughtful, accessible and lucid popular philosophers writing today." --Julian Baggini
"This is an important study that will lead you to question just about everything you hear about 'wellbeing'." --Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology, University of
"A beautifully written book." --Australian Journal of Adult Learning
"This is an important study that will lead you to question just about everything you hear about 'wellbeing'." --Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology, University of
"A beautifully written book." --Australian Journal of Adult Learning
Product Description
Type how to be happy into Google and you get several million hits. That's a lot of advice! But why does so much of it -- work less, say thanks, keep fit -- sound so trite? If it were that easy, wouldn't we all be happy by now? The reason is that a central and tricky question is being glossed over: just what is happiness? In his absorbing new book, Mark Vernon discovers that happiness cannot be found by seeking it directly. Indeed, this is the key insight of nearly every philosopher who has ever considered it. Rather, as Vernon shows, the crunch issue is our ability, or inability, to find a sense of meaning or value that goes beyond everyday life. The search for transcendence, argues Vernon, is the greatest challenge of our day. The idea that we are part of something bigger, something unfamiliar and unknown, was, until modern times, a fundamental step in cultivating wellbeing. Whereas today happiness is all too often associated with pleasure, a concern with the bits and pieces that might make up a good life, rather than a love of the good itself and a search for the good in life. Unless our understanding of wellbeing is both more expansive and profound, Vernon argues, people will only be let down, for all the warm-sounding words that are uttered. Drawing on the insights of the ancient Greek philosophers, "Wellbeing" challenges us to think about our values and beliefs, to discover a sense of place in the universe, and to work out how to give ourselves to love and life. In doing so, wellbeing is found to be within the grasp of us all.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In a world populated by people who understand the answers to life's great questions as black or white, Mark Vernon stands up for the shades of grey; for those of us who share neither the certainties advocated by much of organised religion or the so-called New Atheists.
Sketching out a thoughtful and nuanced argument, this is a great book if you've tried the usual self-help guides and are tired of their illusory search for happiness - increasingly restricted by Western culture to mere material comfort and sensual pleasure. Vernon re-directs the search towards the idea of 'Wellbeing', expertly using the ideas of philosophers from Aristotle to the present day to try to dig down to what really makes for a good life.
In essence, Vernon discusses how we can get back in touch with life's transcendent dimension through art, music, literature and love, but without necessarily turning to religion; and how science and the scientific method help in the search for understanding, but are insufficient to deal with the entirety of human experience. Perhaps rare for a philosopher, he also emphasises the importance of practising what you preach, quoting Kierkegaard's point that it's no good building a high-vaulted palace and living in the dog kennel alongside it!
Intelligent but accessible, wide-ranging and often funny, Vernon's "Wellbeing" will appeal as much to those with a serious philosophical interest in this area as it will to those who simply seek to reflect on the meaning and practical cultivation of the good in life.
Sketching out a thoughtful and nuanced argument, this is a great book if you've tried the usual self-help guides and are tired of their illusory search for happiness - increasingly restricted by Western culture to mere material comfort and sensual pleasure. Vernon re-directs the search towards the idea of 'Wellbeing', expertly using the ideas of philosophers from Aristotle to the present day to try to dig down to what really makes for a good life.
In essence, Vernon discusses how we can get back in touch with life's transcendent dimension through art, music, literature and love, but without necessarily turning to religion; and how science and the scientific method help in the search for understanding, but are insufficient to deal with the entirety of human experience. Perhaps rare for a philosopher, he also emphasises the importance of practising what you preach, quoting Kierkegaard's point that it's no good building a high-vaulted palace and living in the dog kennel alongside it!
Intelligent but accessible, wide-ranging and often funny, Vernon's "Wellbeing" will appeal as much to those with a serious philosophical interest in this area as it will to those who simply seek to reflect on the meaning and practical cultivation of the good in life.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"In Wellbeing, Mark Vernon offers readers an intelligent, sympathetic and generous discussion of the good in life, and how we might discover it.
For Vernon, today's `happiness' fixation is misguided - hence his preference for `wellbeing'. The quest for happiness can become a ruinous chase for pleasure, or a distraction from itself. He thinks we're most happy, not when we're seeking pleasure or `positive emotions', but when we're chasing something beyond ourselves.
This `something' can include relationships, politics and work, but it cannot be reduced to them. For Vernon, what encourages wellbeing is `the good': an ineffable `something'. The good can't be captured by science, or exhausted by intellect - it's elusive, entrancing, yet illuminating.
For Vernon, love of the good promotes wellbeing. Not simply lust or camaraderie, but a deeper, broader outlook of adoration. It ennobles our feelings, clarifies our sight, and sensitises our thoughts.
If this isn't perfectly convincing, it isn't supposed to be. Despite his considerable academic training, Vernon is rightly comfortable with life's mystery and ambiguity. Wellbeing isn't a manifesto or `how to' - it's helpful, high-minded, humane philosophy." - from The Big Issue, Australia
For Vernon, today's `happiness' fixation is misguided - hence his preference for `wellbeing'. The quest for happiness can become a ruinous chase for pleasure, or a distraction from itself. He thinks we're most happy, not when we're seeking pleasure or `positive emotions', but when we're chasing something beyond ourselves.
This `something' can include relationships, politics and work, but it cannot be reduced to them. For Vernon, what encourages wellbeing is `the good': an ineffable `something'. The good can't be captured by science, or exhausted by intellect - it's elusive, entrancing, yet illuminating.
For Vernon, love of the good promotes wellbeing. Not simply lust or camaraderie, but a deeper, broader outlook of adoration. It ennobles our feelings, clarifies our sight, and sensitises our thoughts.
If this isn't perfectly convincing, it isn't supposed to be. Despite his considerable academic training, Vernon is rightly comfortable with life's mystery and ambiguity. Wellbeing isn't a manifesto or `how to' - it's helpful, high-minded, humane philosophy." - from The Big Issue, Australia
Format:Paperback
One reviewer was right: will appeal as much to those with a serious philosophical interest in this area as it will to those who simply seek to reflect on the meaning and practical cultivation of the good in life.
I found this to be quite a profound read as I am not into philosophy, but loved the title so much and the subject that I ploughed on, and pleased I did. At times there is some light-heartedness from the author, and this adds to the dimension of it, in that can happiness be found? After reading this, I do feel a little more that yes, happiness can be secured, so long as you do not sidestep the releated issues that can prevent this from happening. Don't be put off by the other reviews that seem to throw around philosophers names like confetti. All in all, a well put together book.
I found this to be quite a profound read as I am not into philosophy, but loved the title so much and the subject that I ploughed on, and pleased I did. At times there is some light-heartedness from the author, and this adds to the dimension of it, in that can happiness be found? After reading this, I do feel a little more that yes, happiness can be secured, so long as you do not sidestep the releated issues that can prevent this from happening. Don't be put off by the other reviews that seem to throw around philosophers names like confetti. All in all, a well put together book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Half-baked
This book, that purports to be philosophy, unfortunately consists of religious special pleading. The author claims to be a 'don't-know'; if you don't know if there is a llama in... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Simon G. Barrett
A Humanist view
The subject of `wellbeing' (or `flourishing' or `happiness') has always been of interest to Humanists who believe that wellbeing can be achieved without recourse to God or... Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2008 by Mr. D. J. Warden
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