HAPPINESS --- LESSONS FROM A NEW SCIENCE by Richard Layard. The Penguin Press, 2005
    PREFACE (pix)

    PART 1 --- THE PROBLEM (p3-108)

      1) What's the problem? (p3-10)

        [1] What philosophy? (p4-6)

        [2] What psychology? (p6)

        [3] What social message? (p6-8)

        [4] What personal message? (p8-9)

      2) What is happiness? (p11-28)

      3) Are we getting happier? (p29-38)

      4) If you're so rich, why aren't you happy? (p41-53)

      5) So what does make us happy? (p55-75)

      6) What's going wrong? (p77-93)

      7) Can we pursue a common good? (p95-108)

    PART 2 --- WHAT CAN BE DONE (p109-236)

      8) The greatest happiness --- is that the goal? (p111-126)

      9) Does economics have a clue? (p127-147)

      10) How can we tame the rat race? (p149-165)

      11) Can we afford to be secure? (p167-184)

      12) Can mind control mood? (p187-202)

      13) Do drugs help? (p205-221)

      14) Conclusions for today's world (p223-236)

        [1] Happiness matters (p224-225)

          (1) Happiness is an objective dimension of all our experience (p224)

          (2) We are programmed to seek happiness (p224)

          (3) It is self-evident that the best society is the happiest (p224-225)

          (4) Our society is not likely to become happier unless people agree that this is what we want to happen (p225)

        [2] Sources of happiness (p226-231)

          (1) Humans are deeply social beings (p225-226)

          (2) As social beings, we want to trust each other (p226-227)

          (3) People are also deeply attached to the status quo (p227-228)

          (4) Human beings are also status conscious (p228-229)

          (5) Human beings are also very adaptable (p229-230)

          (6) In any case extra income increases happiness less and less as people get richer (p230-231)

          (7) In fact happiness depends on your inner life as on your outer circumstances (p230-231)

          (8) Public policy can more easily remove misery than augment happiness (p231)

        [3] Verdict on economics (p231-232)

        [4] A better world --- taking happiness seriously (p232-234)

        [5] Conclusion --- we desperately need a concept of common good or shared purpose (p234-236)

          Happiness comes from outside and from within. The two sources are not in contradiction. The secret of achieving true happiness is to strive for compassion towards oneself and others. And the ethical principle of the Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number of People is essentially the expression of that ideal social goal.

          Perhaps these two ideas could be the cornerstones of our future culture.

    MY THANKS (p237-239)

    SOURCES OF TABLES, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS (p241-244)

    LIST OF ANNEXES (p245)

      Available at http://cep.lse.ac.uk/layard/annex.pdf

    NOTES (p247-271)

    REFERENCES (p273-297)

    INDEX (p299-309)

    CREDITS (p310)
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