How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy
A collection of essays by fifteen philosophers presenting a thoughtful, introductory guide to choosing a philosophy for living an examined and meaningful life.
Socrates famously said "the unexamined life is not worth living," but what does it mean to truly live philosophically?
This thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection brings together essays by fifteen leading philosophers reflecting on what it means to live according to a philosophy of life. From Eastern philosophies (Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) and classical Western philosophies (such as Aristotelianism and Stoicism), to the four major religions, as well as contemporary philosophies (such as existentialism and effective altruism), each contributor offers a lively, personal account of how they find meaning in the practice of their chosen philosophical tradition.
Together, the pieces in How to Live a Good Life provide not only a beginner's guide to choosing a life philosophy but also a timely portrait of what it means to live an examined life in the twenty-first century.
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
Socrates famously said "the unexamined life is not worth living," but what does it mean to truly live philosophically?
This thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection brings together essays by fifteen leading philosophers reflecting on what it means to live according to a philosophy of life. From Eastern philosophies (Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) and classical Western philosophies (such as Aristotelianism and Stoicism), to the four major religions, as well as contemporary philosophies (such as existentialism and effective altruism), each contributor offers a lively, personal account of how they find meaning in the practice of their chosen philosophical tradition.
Together, the pieces in How to Live a Good Life provide not only a beginner's guide to choosing a life philosophy but also a timely portrait of what it means to live an examined life in the twenty-first century.
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
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Community Reviews
I like to pick books like this up every few years to see how I perceive them differently as time goes by.
What struck me this time? I still have a soft spot for Aristotelianism, the existentialist essay was quite good, and effective altruism strikes me as worth digging deeper on.
What the book does well? Most of these folks share their lived philosophies. Takes on character of - hey here’s why this makes sense to me and how that has impacted me. There is something common sense to doing ethics that way and I think it’s nice the editors got fifteen folks to put these essays together.
What the book could do better? Ethics books in general tend to underplay cultural context for different belief systems. It’s one thing to bring a theory into the present and allow contemporary readers to benefit from its perspective. It’s another to wretch it from historical and cultural context. Finally the editors don’t seem to have provided much guidance to the essayists. So what you get are wildly different approaches to these different philosophies - some quite theoretical / argumentative, some deeply personal. Some seem like they were probably repurposed from some other purpose (cough: Hinduism) whereas others were definitely written specifically as a non specialist introduction (eg existentialism, Epicureanism). All reflect the character of their authors, but I could have used a bit more consistency.
This was fine. Three stars.
What struck me this time? I still have a soft spot for Aristotelianism, the existentialist essay was quite good, and effective altruism strikes me as worth digging deeper on.
What the book does well? Most of these folks share their lived philosophies. Takes on character of - hey here’s why this makes sense to me and how that has impacted me. There is something common sense to doing ethics that way and I think it’s nice the editors got fifteen folks to put these essays together.
What the book could do better? Ethics books in general tend to underplay cultural context for different belief systems. It’s one thing to bring a theory into the present and allow contemporary readers to benefit from its perspective. It’s another to wretch it from historical and cultural context. Finally the editors don’t seem to have provided much guidance to the essayists. So what you get are wildly different approaches to these different philosophies - some quite theoretical / argumentative, some deeply personal. Some seem like they were probably repurposed from some other purpose (cough: Hinduism) whereas others were definitely written specifically as a non specialist introduction (eg existentialism, Epicureanism). All reflect the character of their authors, but I could have used a bit more consistency.
This was fine. Three stars.
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