What Makes Life Worth Living? - How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds (Paperback, New)

Here is an original and provocative anthropological approach to the fundamental philosophical question of what makes life worth living. Gordon Mathews considers this perennial issue by examining nine pairs of similarly situated individuals in the United States and Japan. In the course of exploring how people from these two cultures find meaning in their daily lives, he illuminates a vast and intriguing range of ideas about work and love, religion, creativity, and self-realisation. Mathews explores these topics by means of the Japanese term "ikigai", that which most makes one's life seem worth living. American English has no equivalent, but "ikigai" applies not only to Japanese lives but to American lives as well. Ikigai is what, day after day and year after year, each of us most essentially lives for. Through the life stories of those he interviews, Mathews analyses the ways Japanese and American lives have been affected by social roles and cultural vocabularies. As we approach the end of the century, the author's investigation into how the inhabitants of the world's two largest economic superpowers make sense of their lives brings a vital new understanding to our skeptical age.

General

Imprint:	University of California Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	April 1996
First published:	April 1996
Authors:	Gordon Mathews
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	296
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-520-20133-0
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General
LSN:	0-520-20133-7
Barcode:	9780520201330

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