The Case for Happiness is a book about ten Great Ideas. Each chapter is an attempt to engage with an idea that many cultures of the world have discovered - to challenge it in light of what we know today from scientific research and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to modern life.

Award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows us how a deeper understanding of pan-human wisdom and timeless principles can enrich or even transform our lives. For this purpose, he examines, in the light of modern science, the multifaceted division of our mind, the importance of how we perceive the world, the function of reciprocity in social life, our inherent biases, the contradictions of the pursuit of happiness, the importance of love, the beneficial consequences of adversity, the power of spirituality, and the significance of coherence in our lives.

Jonathan Haidt is a professor at New York University. His research subject is ethics - its emotional foundations, its cultural variations, and its developmental trajectory. One goal of his research is to show how one can approach the moral motivations of one's opponents with understanding and respect. He has been named "one of the top 100 thinkers in the world" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines.