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insights include Donald Pfaff’s The Neuroscience of Fair Play, David Linden’s The Compass of Pleasure, Deirdre Barrett’s Supernormal Stimuli, and Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness. If there is a consistent theme throughout these studies, it is that much of what delivers well-being depends on unconscious mental processes and brain pathways of which we are only dimly aware. Yet as a society and economy we’ve learned to tamper with those pathways, often dangerously, not only through narcotics use but also through pervasive and invasive advertising, the visual imagery of mass media, new and unhealthy methods of food preparation, and the relentless PR campaigns fed by corporate lobbying.

Wisdom of the Ages

Well before there were brain scans and public opinion surveys, there were philosophers who acutely considered the human condition and the pathways to life satisfaction. Two who have left a lasting mark on humanity for more than two millennia are the Buddha and Aristotle. Though Buddhism has primarily affected the course of civilization in South and East Asia, while Aristotelian thought has mainly affected the course of civilization in the West, the two great schools of thought share deep insights and also complement each other. One of my great joys in writing this book was the chance to savor Aristotle’s classic tome The Nicomachean Ethics, considered by some in the West to be the greatest philosophical tract ever written. As for the Buddha’s teachings, in addition to specific texts such as “The Four Noble Truths” and “The Eightfold Path,” I have long found the Dalai Lama to be the most inspiring guide to Buddhist thought, and was especially moved by his Ethics for the New Millennium and The Art of Happiness.

In the modern era, from the European Enlightenment till today, philosophers have continued to speculate about the deep motivations of human action and the ultimate sources of human well-being. Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments remains one of the most acute (and also entertaining) texts on the many motivations of individuals as they are influenced by social dynamics and status. Modern philosophers have emphasized not only what gives happiness but what delivers justice. Revisiting the famous debate between John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice and Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia remains a very powerful way to reflect on the themes of individual liberty versus social justice and ethical responsibility. Philosopher Peter Singer has added a powerful utilitarian voice to the debate in recent books such as The Life You Can Save. One powerful attempt to bring together the lessons of the ancient sages, the wisdom of the modern philosophers, and the insights of modern psychology is Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. This book is sure to stimulate thinking and debate and helped me to wend my way through the long history of human speculations on these crucial topics.

Economic Underpinnings

The main economic theme of the book is that the United States has lost the appropriate balance between the market and the government. Economic well-being depends on a mixed economy. Adam Smith knew as much. Readers of The Wealth of Nations (especially Book V) will recall that Smith favored the active role of government in law enforcement, public works, and education, among other areas. The two most influential “small government” texts of the twentieth century, Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom, are much more frequently quoted than read. This is a shame. Both are well worth reading today, in part to remind readers that even arch—market liberals like Hayek and Friedman believed in government responsibility in the economy, not least to protect the environment, provide infrastructure, and ensure an educated population. On a related note, the German market economist Wilhelm Röpke, in A Humane Economy, brilliantly emphasized the need for moral boundaries to protect human values from the overbearing pressures of the marketplace.

There has been a flood of books in recent