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Author: John Kekes Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022635959X Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 273
Book Description
The philosopher and author of How Should We Live? presents “a clear and provocative discussion of issues such as boredom, hypocrisy, evil, and innocence” (Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford). In this book, John Kekes draws on anthropology, history, and literature to offer practical insights into the common predicaments we all face in our daily lives. Each chapter offers new ways of thinking about a common, fundamental problem, such as facing difficult choices, uncontrollable contingencies, complex evaluations, the failures of justice, the miasma of boredom, and the inescapable hypocrisies of social life. In each case, Kekes discusses how others in different times and cultures have approached similar issues. Kekes examines what is good, bad, instructive, and dangerous in the Hindu caste system, Balinese role-morality, the sexually charged politics of the Shilluk, the religious passion of Cortes and Simone Weil, the fate of Colonel Hiromichi Yahara during and after the battle for Okinawa, the ritual human sacrifices of the Aztecs, and the tragedies to which innocence may lead. In doing so, he enlarges our understanding of the possibilities available to us as we struggle with the common obstacles of modern life.
Author: David Benatar Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190633832 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our deaths by suicide? Many people ask these big questions -- and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. The Human Predicament invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition. David Benatar here offers a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism about the central questions of human existence. He argues that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we might be. He maintains that the quality of life, although less bad for some than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Worse, death is generally not a solution; in fact, it exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. While it can release us from suffering, it imposes another cost - annihilation. This state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about many things, including immortality and suicide, and how we should think about the possibility of deeper meaning in our lives. Ultimately, this thoughtful, provocative, and deeply candid treatment of life's big questions will interest anyone who has contemplated why we are here, and what the answer means for how we should live.
Author: Max Malikow Publisher: Theocentric Publishing Group the ISBN: 9780985618162 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
For each of us, if life is to be experienced as worthwhile, if not thrilling, and occasionally pleasant, if not joyful, our diligence is required. Even the most enviable of lives includes challenges, disappointments, frustrations, and confusions. There is a word for circumstances that challenge, disappoint, frustrate, and confuse - that word is predicament. Being a human being is not easy. Every advantage we enjoy seems to be accompanied by a disadvantage. We can acquire information, but also experience the frustration of forgetting. We can create, but also be tormented with "writer's block." We can know the euphoria of being in love, but also suffer heartbreak from a lover's rejection. These are but a few of the phenomena that can make life difficult, troubling, perplexing, and, perhaps, a predicament.
Author: David K. Cohen Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674051106 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
Since Socrates, teaching has been a difficult and even dangerous profession. Why is teaching such hard work? In this provocative, witty, sometimes rueful book, Cohen writes about the predicaments that teachers face and explores what responsible teaching can be. He focuses on the kind of mind reading teaching demands and the resources it requires.
Author: John Kekes
Author: John Kekes
Author: John Kekes
Author: David Benatar
Author: Max Malikow
Author: David K. Cohen
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Author: R.A.W. Hughes
Author: Magnus Pyke
Author: Richard Hughes
Author: George W. Morgan