STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS
by Daniel Gilbert. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006
    ROYAL SOCIETY 2007 SCIENCE BOOK AWARD WINNER

      This book is a scientific exploration of the various ways people attempt to make themselves happy. In May 2007 it won the prestigious £10,000 annual award from the Royal Society Prize for Science Books.

      Daniel Gilbert's book provides a witty exploration of the science behind the pursuit of happiness. He uses cognitive science and psychology to provide intriguing insights into human nature, helping us to understand why we make the decisions we do. Gilbert, who is a Harvard University psychology professor, said he was "absolutely delighted to receive this tremendous honour from the world's oldest learned society."

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pxi-xii)

    FORWARD (pxiii-xvii)

    PART 1--- PROSPECTION = The act of looking forward in time or considering the future (p1-25)

      1) Journey to Elsewhen (p3-25)

        The greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine the world as it might be! (p5)

        What good is a "frontal lobe?" The frontal lobe is the recent addition to the human brain that allows us to imagine the future! (p10-11)

        Frontal lobotomy patients showed severe imairments on any test, even the most simple test, that involved planning. (p13)

        Now, this pair of observations, that damage to certain parts of the frontal lobe can make people feel calm but that it can also leave them unable to plan, seem to converge on a single conclusion. The conceptual tie that binds both anxiety and planning is that they are intimately connected to the future. (p13-14)

    PART 2 --- SUBJECTIVITY = The fact that experience is unobservable to everyone but the person having it (p27-72)

      2) The view from in here (p29-54)

      3) Outside looking in (p55-72)

    PART 3 --- REALISM = The belief that things are in reality as they appear to be in the mind (p73-108)

      4) In the blind spot of the mind's eye (p75-95)

      5) The "Hound of Silence" (p96-108)

    PART 4 --- PRESENTISM = The tendency for current experience to influence one's views of the past and the future (p109-148)

      6) The future in now (p111-108)

      7) Time bombs (p127-147)

    PART 5 --- RATIONALIZATION = The act of causing something to be or to seem reasonable (p149-192)

      8)Paradise Glosses (p151-171)

      9) Immune to reality (p172-192)

    PART 6 --- CORRIGIBILITY = Capable of being corrected, reformed or improved (p193-234)

      10) Once bitten (p195-211)

      11) Reporting live from tomorrow (p212-233)

    AFTERWORD (p235-238)

      Most of us make at least three important decisions in our lives:

        [1] Where to live

        [2] What to do, and

        [3] With whom to do it

      Making these decisions is such a natural part of adulthood that it is easy to forget that we are among the first human beings to make them in recorded history.

    NOTES (p239-268)

    INDEX (p269-277)

    PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (p279

    A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR (p281)

    A NOTE ABOUT THE TYPE (p283)
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