In his latest book, esteemed philosopher John Kekes draws on
anthropology, history, and literature in order to help us cope with
the common predicaments that plague us as we try to take control of
our lives. In each chapter he offers fascinating new ways of
thinking about a particular problem that is fundamental to how we
live, such as facing difficult choices, uncontrollable
contingencies, complex evaluations, the failures of justice, the
miasma of boredom, and the inescapable hypocrisies of social life.
Kekes considers how we might deal with these predicaments by
comparing how others in different times and cultures have
approached them. He examines what is good, bad, instructive, and
dangerous in the sexually charged politics of the Shilluk, the
Hindu caste system, Balinese role-morality, 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 shakes us out of our deep-seated ways of
thinking, enlarging our understanding of the possibilities
available to us as we struggle with the problems that stand in the
way of how we want to live. The result is a highly interesting
journey through time and space that illuminates and helps us cope
with some of the most basic predicaments we all face as human
beings.
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