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When you use our search engine by clicking
on the Amazon logo 
at the bottom of this page and you give in the keywords "love+freedom",
one of the first books you see is the book Healing the Culture:
A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom and the Life
Issues by Robert Spitzer S.J. .
Amazon describes this book as follows:
This book represents philosophical personalism at its best.
It makes you reflect on what it means to be a person. Following
a basic maxim of Greek philosophical wisdom,`Operation follows
existence,'the author develops an objective definition of
personhood. From there, he takes you to the next step: If
you are a person what does it really mean to be happy? He
proposes four levels of happiness:
- Happiness, that which comes
from an external stimulus. It interacts
with one or more of the five senses, but does not last very
long.
- Happiness, that which comes
from ego-gratification. This kind of happiness
comes whenever one can shift the locus of control to oneself.
Hence, winning, gaining power or control, or gaining popularity
causes happiness.
- Happiness, that which comes
when we want to make a difference with
our lives, our time, our energy and our talent, because
we also desire love, truth, goodness, beauty and being.
- Happiness, that which comes
from an awareness of a seemingly unconditional
horizon surrounding human curiosity, creativity, spirit
and achievement. In the context of faith, this desire for
unconditional, perfect, ultimate, and even unrestricted
Love, Goodness, Truth, Beauty and Being, might be called
a desire for God.
Although all the levels of happiness have some good in then,
levels 3 and 4 are absolutely necessary for a person to
become fully human. Furthermore, the level
of happiness that you adopt as a goal in life will determine
your concept of success, self-worth, love, suffering, ethics,
freedom, person, rights and the common good. Last but not
least, Spitzer challenges you to confront in a compassionate
but thoughtful way two of the most controversial issues
of our culture: abortion and euthanasia. In conclusion,
if you agree with Socrates that the unexamined life is not
worth living, you will find this book an excellent, thorough
and powerful invitation to examine yourself in order for
you to lead a good and happy life. It is true: philosophy
might not be enough, but it is certainly a great beginning.
So far for Amazon.
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