Home Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya (ISBN: 9780593538227)

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Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way Paperback - 2023

Name: Life Is Hard
Price: 12.15 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Setiya, Kieran,
ISBN: 9780593538227

by Kieran Setiya

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From the publisher

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND THE ECONOMIST

"Life Is Hard is a humane consolation for challenging times. Reading it is like speaking with a thoughtful friend who never tells you to cheer up, but, by offering gentle companionship and a change of perspective, makes you feel better anyway." --The New York Times Book Review

There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world.

In this profound and personal book, Setiya shows how the tools of philosophy can help us find our way. Drawing on ancient and modern philosophy as well as fiction, history, memoir, film, comedy, social science, and stories from Setiya's own experience, Life Is Hard is a book for this moment--a work of solace and compassion.

Warm, accessible, and good-humored, this book is about making the best of a bad lot. It offers guidance for coping with pain and making new friends, for grieving the lost and failing with grace, for confronting injustice and searching for meaning in life. Countering pop psychologists and online influencers who admonish us to "find our bliss" and "live our best lives," Setiya acknowledges that the best is often out of reach. Instead, he asks how we can weather life's adversities, finding hope and living well when life is hard.

Details

Title Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
Author Kieran Setiya
Binding Paperback
Pages 240
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Riverhead Books
Publication date 2023-10-03
Features Bibliography, Index
ISBN 9780593538227 / 0593538226
Weight 0.4 lbs (0.18 kg)
Dimensions 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 in (20.07 x 12.95 x 1.78 cm)
Category Self-Help
Library of Congress subjects Conduct of life, Hope
Dewey Decimal Code 204.42

About the author

Kieran Setiya is a professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Midlife: A Philosophical Guide. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The New York Times, the Boston Review, the London Review of Books, The Atlantic, and The Yale Review.