European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 1, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 24 scene stars and stripes sunday april 1 2007 q o n u pursuing happiness professor finds definition elusive Darrin Mcmahon still cannot define happiness after spending six years researching and writing a Book about it while that been a frustration the Florida state University history professor said its also what gives happiness its Power and allure his Book happiness a was recently named by the new York times As one of the 100 notable books of 2006 it traces what the great thinkers of Western philosophy have thought about happiness they include Aristotle so crates Locke Rousseau Darwin Marx Freud and Thomas Jefferson who famously counted the Pursuit of Happi Ness As an unalienable right in the declaration of Independence the Book is More about the Pursuit than the attainment because in some ways you never get Mcmahon said in an interview happiness As i try to argue in the Book tends to slip away from you when you think about it too he got the idea for the Book while teaching at Columbia University in new York during the 1990s the Berlin Wall had fallen and the world appeared headed for democracy the Stock mar happiness a written by Florida state University professor Darrin Mcmahon was named one of the 100 notable books of 2006 by the new York times Ket was booming and most people seemed to be prospering happiness was in the Mcmahon recalled Clinique the cosmetics company came out with a perfume called Happy you could still remember the Bobby Mcferrin song dont worry be happiness also dovetails nicely with Mcmahon academic focus on the 17th and 1 8th centuries the period of enlightenment when Jefferson and others put a new spin on the subject until then most people didst think of it As a right unalienable or otherwise it was More a matter of Luck or virtue greek tragedies were filled with the idea that happiness was a matter of Fate the gods Are spiteful and Capri Mcmahon said just when you think everything going Well they pull the Rug out from you and Send a Thunderbolt that began to change with Socrates but the concept of humans having some control Over their own happiness didst Flower until the 1 8th Century if you ask somebody today what happiness is inevitably Tell you that it involves feeling Mcmahon said but it meant something More to the greeks and romans Aristotle held that happiness was based on a lifetime of experience you really Tell if you were Happy until you were dead Many Felt virtue was the key to Happi Ness even though it took suffering to achieve Cicero once said a virtuous Man could be Happy even while being tortured christianity maintained the link be tween virtue and happiness during the enlightenment though thinkers began to focus More on plea sure and the ability of people to pursue if not always attain happiness while pleasure today Nas become virtually synonymous with happiness Mcmanon believes the older concept of a life Well lived has not been entirely lost you push most people and they will admit that Well its not enough to be Happy simply to be pleasure a As it he said you need other things and talk about family and talk about love and talk about meaning and so Mcmahon who has been talking about happiness nonstop for about a year said Hes getting a Little tired of it and next up is a Book about Genius a concept nearly As ephemeral As Hap piness he said he derives his own happiness from Little things in life walking his dog travelling having people Over for dinner teaching a Good class and working on his books i wish i could Tell you that having studied the history of happiness for six years Ive got the magic Bullet but 1 he said i just go about my business and find that happiness will come to Usa today bestsellers key fiction a nonfiction hard cover paperback 1 the secret by Rhonda Byrne nah 2 Nineteen minutes by Jodi 3 judge jury by James Patter son Andrew Gross up 4 eldest inheritance Book ii by Christopher Paolini 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