More Than Happiness

Buddhist and Stoic Wisdom for a Sceptical Age

Antonia Macaro author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Icon Books

Published:3rd Jan '19

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More Than Happiness cover

An inspiring, critical and practical look at what we
can learn from ancient wisdom.

An inspiring, critical and practical look at what we can learn from ancient wisdom.

'This groundbreaking study provides a much-needed  philosophical framework for those practising mindfulness  as well as a call to recover the pragmatic and therapeutic dimensions of philosophy.' - Stephen Batchelor, author of After Buddhism and Secular Buddhism

Modern readers tend to think of Buddhism as spending time alone meditating, searching for serenity.  Stoicism calls to mind repressing our emotions in order to help us soldier on through adversity. But how  accurate are our popular understandings of these traditions? And what can we learn from them without either buying in  wholeheartedly to their radical ideals or else transmuting them into simple self-improvement regimes that bear little  resemblance to their original aims?

How can we achieve more than happiness?

In More than Happiness, Antonia Macaro delves into both philosophies, focusing on the elements that fit with our sceptical age, and those which have the potential to make the biggest impact on how we live. From accepting that some things are beyond our control, to monitoring our emotions for unhealthy reactions, to shedding attachment to material things, there is much, she argues, that we can take and much that we'd do better to leave behind.

In this synthesis of ancient wisdom, Macaro reframes the 'good life', and gets us to see the world as it really is and to question the value of the things we desire. The goal is more than happiness: living ethically and placing value on the right things in life. 

Both practical and informative, this groundbreaking study of the extraordinary resonances between early Buddhism and Stoic philosophy provides a much-needed philosophical framework for those practising mindfulness as well as a call to recover the pragmatic and therapeutic dimensions of philosophy that have long been overlooked in the Western tradition. -- Stephen Batchelor * author of After Buddhism and Secular Buddhism *

ISBN: 9781785784460

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 14mm

Weight: 182g

224 pages