Economics Religion and Happiness

<p>Most books on happiness are concerned with answering in their diverse ways a basic question: <i>how should I live?</i> Such books assume however that the path to happiness lies entirely within one’s control. Happiness is simply a matter of doing certain things and refraining from doing certain other things. This book however takes a different view. It is that happiness is not always within our control but instead prey to the attitudes and actions of others. Following Jean-Paul Sartre’s aphorism “hell is other people” the broad theme of this book is that “unhappiness is other people”.</p><p>In the language of economics “other” people through their attitudes and actions create externalities – often negative - which serve to make “us” unhappy. The instruments for creating such externalities are <i>intolerance</i> and feelings of <i>envy</i>/<i>superiority. </i> This book expands on this theme in respect of three areas: <i>religion</i> <i>money</i> and <i>prejudice</i>. It is fair to say the existing (un)happiness literature particularly in economics does not take many of these externalities into account. Instead the focus is firstly on identifying the factors <i>internal to oneself</i> that contribute to personal happiness and secondly on measuring the relative strength of their contribution. By contrast an analysis of the externalities that people impose upon others lies at the heart of this book.</p><p><i>Economics Religion and Happiness</i> will primarily appeal to students academics and researchers across economics psychology philosophy and sociology and will also find an audience among those interested in exploring issues related to happiness in greater depth.</p>