Customer Reviews

Conquest Of Happiness

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This book from Bertrand Russell is a rather atypical book for a philosopher, as it really at its core is a self-help book. He discusses causes of unhappiness and happiness in the contemporary Western society of his times (which isnā¤™t too much different from that of our times).

He criticizes what in America and, to a lesser extent, England was (and still is) perceived as "the struggle for life", and puts it in its right dimension as what it really is, i.e. "the struggle for success". We will all (at least most of us in the developed countries) have our breakfast next morning, and at any rate, most middle managers will.

He deems zest to be "the most universal and distinctive mark of happy men" and discusses in great length other aspects conducive, in his mind, to happiness, such as family and work, and even impersonal interests.

Overall, this is a good book and I would recommend it to anyone if they asked (whatever my recommendation may be worth). Having Bertrand Russell writing what amounts to a self-help book is like having a violinist from the symphonic orchestra playing by your table at a Hungarian restaurant. This is not a "Chicken Soup" style of book ā¤" it is just Russell trying to help people become happier. Naturally, this is not something that can be achieved by reading one book (or many books for that matter). However, this book may help; perhaps more than 9 out of 10 things people do trying to achieve that goal.

A nice combination of philosophy and self-help guides the reader through what makes a person feel the way they do and how to change it. It is divided well: because first you'll want to know what's wrong, then things that make it better, then the total person to walk away as. Many of his examples of what makes us unhappy are definitely around today, retaining much of what made the book poignant.

Surely, it is dated. Russell explains to the reader how much of a stress it must be to see planes in the air. Stuff like this does not change the flow of the book to a modern reader though. My mind replaced Russell's old examples with new ones. His general arguments still apply.

You can forget your highlight pen. What sentence would you neglect to underline? I defy you to find one.

Russell's passage describing the fatigue caused by restless worry hit extremely close to home. And his passage describing the child of two from the city experiencing a "primitive, simple and massive" joy during his trip to the country was exhillerating for this reviewer.

After reading this book, and rereading this book, I felt like shouting: "This is why we have great philosophers -- to express these ideas in these words."

Bertrand Russell's "Conquest for Happiness" is a light, philosophical compilation of reflections on what makes one happy and unhappy in life. The piece is broken down into two main parts, "Causes of Unhappiness" and "Causes of Happiness," the former including nine chapters, the latter, eight. The chapters themselves are typically fairly short (about ten pages long on average), but in some of them Russell has a tendency to ramble. Most, however, contain wise and simply stated principles by which all too few of us live either by or in futherance of. Examples include:

"The cure [to Byronic Unhappiness] not in lamentation and nostalgia for the past, but in a more courageous acceptance of the modern outlook and a determination to root out nominally discarded superstitions from all their obscure hiding places." (p.34)

"Merely to realize the causes of one?s own [envy] is to take a long step towards curing [it]. The habit of thinking in terms of comparison is a fatal one. When anything pleasant occurs it should be enjoyed to the full, without stopping the think that it is not so pleasant as something else that my possibly be happening to someone else." (pp.70-71)

"The essentials of human happiness are simple, so simple that sophisticated people cannot bring themselves to admit what it is they really lack." (p.74)

"Nobody should expect to be perfect, or be unduly troubled by the fact that he is not." (p.92)

"No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid, and however unpleasant the truth may be, it is better to fact it once for all, to get used to it, and the proceed to build your life in accordance with it." (p.99)

"One should respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways." (p.107)

"The divines may succeed so long as they can successfully threaten hell fire, but it is only a minority of the population that takes this threat seriously." (p.152)

Although delicious kernels of wisdom abound, Russell expounds from his characteristically pompous perspective that, on occasion, may offend the contemporary conscience (his frequent musings about women and the occasional ones regarding the "white races" are likely to sour a great many people, in my judgment). I myself came across them with no small degree of shock, given Russell's reputation for being an enlightened member of modern liberalism. Putting politically correct mores of the day aside, Russell's shorter work contains a wealth of wisdom that all people ought to (re)acquaint themselves with.

The monograph, written by Russell at the age of 58 (he lived to 98), is first and foremost a self-help book. As Russell clearly states in the preface, the book contains "no profound philosophy or deep erudition," and was "aimed only at putting together some remarks which are inspired by what I [Russell] hope is common sense." And how wonderful those remarks were.

As with any self-help book, there aren't that many _new_ facts to learn within. Rather there is a certain view of the world the authors offer, and it is their congeniality and their own conviction in their view that provide readers with consolation, and motivation to try out such view. Russell's view is that the world is abundant with joy to be explored and discovered. The programs he suggests for conquering happiness, most notably, were 1) to face whatever fear you behold with sincerity and conviction that they are possible to overcome (Russell regards even one's unconscious changeable with sufficient vigor and intensity), 2) enjoy to its fullest extent what life has to offer no matter how trivial the source of enjoyment are perceived by others insofar as the act of pursuing enjoyment do not harm others (example: Russell's Gardner was fascinated in hunting rabbits!), and 3) to realize that whatever happens to oneself is not all that important after all (Russell's such laissez faire-ish view is exemplified by his words: "in the broad stream of history nothing is of paramount importance..."). With a mathematician's rigor Russell in each chapter scoped out what the problem he wished to take on, and laid out his solutions, logically deduced from common sense. I was convinced.

However it was not so much the solutions Russell provided that made me enjoy this book. What I enjoyed most was the chance to peek into a mind that appeared to me to be naive and held no pretense: "I shall therefore assume that the reader would rather be happy than unhappy. Whether I can help him to realize this wish, I do not know; but at any rate the attempt can do no harm." To see people attempting to overcome difficulties in their utmost sincerity, in my view, provides one with the ultimate consolation.

I have mixed feelings about Mr. Russell, but this book I can recommend without hesitation. It is especially interesting to examine the list of what he considers stressful from our vantage point many decades later.

This book, written in 1930, is a self-help book written by a philosopher. The book is split in two sections. Causes of Unhappiness has chapters like: ?Envy,? ?The Sense of Sin,? and ?Fear of Public Opinion.? The Causes of Happiness are ?Zest,? ?Affection,? ?Work,? and ?The Family.? Each chapter explains how to be happy in some different way. This book was written well, and Russell had his information right. But the book is close to being outdated, and I personally have no use for it. I give The Conquest of Happiness two and a half stars out of five.

This is a wonderful book, despite the passage of considerable time. Written shortly after WWI, there are occasional references to people and things no longer on the modern radar scope. And, as philosophical writing goes, Russell is better than most in constructing intelligible sentences and paragraphs that don't require repeated reading to understand.

This book is about life. Russell uses his analytic empiricism to discuss typically pop-psychological issues: Boredom, Excitement, Envy, Sin, Persecution, Public Opinion, Zest, etc. But his approach, dated back in time, is refreshingly new and helpful in the present. Indeed, Russell shows himself redolent in wisdom, the true aim of philosophy, and tackles issues that are at the core of what constitutes happiness and its opposites.

Because Russell appeals to his empirical views analytically arrived, there is a sense of wonderment and awe at such simple solutions to difficult problems in modern life. These solutions aren't dressed in pop-ism, but in a perennial philosophy that takes wisdom, not pop-up tapes of life, seriously.

The Atlantic Monthly claimed this book to be a "primer of self-regeneration . . . a most excellent book." This praise is not unwarranted, and given that commonsense is the center of the whole enterprise, its wisdom will endure not only when it was written in the 1920s, but today, and tomorrow.

this book has saved my life.

Go ahead and read it.

Russell makes a departure from philosophy with this work, which is really more akin to bibliotherapy. In various chapters, he discusses all kinds of things that make people both unhappy (e.g., competition, boredom, fatigue) and happy (e.g., affection, family, work). His focus is really on what we can do to be happy on a consistent basis; he's not looking for a temporary fix.

Perhaps his 'philosophy of happiness' can best be summarized in this wonderful quote: 'Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps most fatal to true happiness.' Succinct and true.