Psychology – Page 16 – Ryan’s Book Blog

The Happiness Curve

September 9, 2018 by Ryan Leave a Comment

Background

This book is another volume of work on the subject of the psychology of happiness. It deals with specifically the happiness trajectory over the lifetime and makes particular mention of a statistical “curve” during what we may call “midlife”.

Comments

I am in the bottom of the “U Curve” (as the author puts it), meaning that I am statistically in the unhappiest part of human life, my 40s. Interesting really. I’ve considered my forties to be a great time so far. However Mr. Rauch makes a particular point to say this curve is an average and isn’t predictive. I did enjoy the book and found comfort in many of the concepts presented. For example, I have had an increasing unrest in my career. Mr. Rauch’s concept of the Hedonic Treadmill rang pretty true for me. I am reminded to be accepting of where I am and find enjoyment in the here and now. Those are great words and I hope to be able to hold to them. The thought of my not being alone in this regard is comforting.

Recommendation

I would recommend the book to other folks in my age group. Although Mr. Rauch paints the picture if everyone understood the happiness of aging we would have a better world in which to live, a well trod path for second careers and much better understanding of the elderly, I believe it will take some time till this dream is realized if the theory bears out. I’m not sure those younger than I would enjoy the book.

The American Civil War

September 1, 2018 by Ryan Leave a Comment

Background

Yet another of the “Great Courses” series, The American Civil War is a lecture given by Professor Gary W. Gallagher, Ph.D. of the University of Virginia. This lecture series is over 24 hours of lecture. As such it took me a while to get through… Professor Gallagher takes us from what lead up to the war before the election of 1860 and details everything through the early parts of reconstruction and how we remember the war today. It was recorded in the early 2000’s.

Comments

I live in Virginia and continue to be very interested in what happened during the civil war. Although this was a long lecture, I was kept engaged and found myself wanting to know more. I very much enjoyed Professor Gallagher’s presentation of each side and how he touched on many of the theories and popular misconceptions about the war. I feel he gave a balanced account to what had happened and he made sense of a subject highly sensationalized and used for propaganda on both sides. I still want to know more about it and I feel I have been given a good foundation.

Recommendation

This lecture series is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of material and it will take some time to get through it all. However, I highly recommend it to all Americans. Both those who want to know more about the war and those who should want to know more.

Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory

August 23, 2018 by Ryan Leave a Comment

The Book

Yet again, not a book but a lecture series by the Great Courses. Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory, is given by Professor Dennis Dalton, Ph.D. of Barnard College, Columbia University.

The Scope

There are 16 lectures in the series with each lecture being 46 minutes. Dr. Dalton quickly covers all the ground from the Greeks to 20th century thinkers and how they saw their world around them.

Take Away

Honestly, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did the last course on Greek Philosophy. In some elements, this course and the other are in opposition. Dr. Dalton states Plato was a fond student of Socrates while Professor Roochnik states that wasn’t the case.

Not to disparage the course, I found Dr. Dalton to be engaging and very interesting. Perhaps it was just too broad of a sweep since he had too much ground to cover. Still, many of the facts presented were new to me. Karl Marx’s abject poverty and his writing in London. Gandhi’s inspiration from a quote by Thoreau. The climb of power of Hitler and so on. I was glad I experienced it.

Rating

I would recommend this to most people. It was a good overview.

An Introduction to Greek Philosophy

August 19, 2018 by Ryan Leave a Comment

The Book

In this case, the book isn’t really a book. Rather is a series of 24 lectures from Professor David Roochnik of Boston University. They are part of the Great Courses Series.

Scope

The lectures took us from the early Greek philosophers and we made it to Socrates at lecture 8. Lectures 9 – 16 were on Plato and 17 – 23 were on Aristotle. The final lecture was on the “Philosophical Life” which wrapped it all together. Each lecture was 30 minutes long.

Take Away

I enjoyed the lectures. Professor Roochnik did a wonderful job of keeping me engaged through the series and I feel I learned a great deal. I have always been interested in philosophy and I was pleasantly surprised with how much ground the Greeks covered and what impact they had on Western thought.

I had no idea Socrates was such a minor figure. After all, Bill and Ted picked up Socrates not Plato or Aristotle… I came away thinking of Socrates less like the Grandfatherly figure shepherding his young students along to more of a Rodney Dangerfield was just “can’t get any respect”.

I knew of Plato’s Republic. I had heard of his analogy of the shadows on the cave wall but I didn’t know he only wrote in conversations and never really came out and stated what he as Plato felt. This seems to be very subjective…

I knew nearly nothing of Aristotle. Of course, I had heard the name and knew he was Plato’s student but that was really about it. I appreciated seeing where he differed from Plato and how he thoughts were the basis of thought throughout so much of Western history. I’m left to wonder what the role of women would have been in the last 2000 years had Plato been the last word on the subject.

Rating

I would definitely recommend it to others

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

August 10, 2018 by Ryan Leave a Comment

The Book

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is written by Neil de Grasse Tyson in 2017.

Scope

It is 202 pages covering a wide swath of knowledge in science. If you have watched Dr. Tyson’s reboot of “Cosmos”, most of the material will not be new.

Take Away

Dr. Tyson is a master instructor and lecturer. I have listened to his podcast “Star Talk” since the beginning so none of the information presented was new or even unexpected. However, I loved it! He did a great job wrapping all those thoughts together and presenting it in an understandable form. A quick read and a good reference item.

Rating

I would definitely recommend this to anyone