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A Fragile Life - Accepting Our Vulnerability (Hardcover)
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A Fragile Life - Accepting Our Vulnerability (Hardcover)
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It is perhaps our noblest cause, and certainly one of our oldest:
to end suffering. Think of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, or Marcus
Aurelius: stoically composed figures impervious to the torments of
the wider world, living their lives in complete serenity and
teaching us how to do the same. After all, isn't a life free from
suffering the ideal? Isn't it what so many of us seek? Absolutely
not, argues Todd May in this provocative but compassionate book. In
a moving examination of life and the trials that beset it, he shows
that our fragility, our ability to suffer, is actually one of the
most important aspects of our humanity. May starts with a simple
but hard truth: suffering is inevitable. At the most basic level,
we suffer physically a sprained ankle or a bad back. But we also
suffer insults and indifference. We suffer from overburdened
schedules and unforeseen circumstances, from moral dilemmas and
emotional heartaches. Even just thinking about our own mortality
the fact that we only live one life can lead us to tremendous
suffering. No wonder philosophies such as Buddhism, Taosim,
Stoicism, and even Epicureanism all of which counsel us to rise
above these plights have had appeal over the centuries. May
highlights the tremendous value of these philosophies and the ways
they can guide us toward better lives, but he also exposes a major
drawback to their tenets: such invulnerability is too emotionally
disengaged from the world, leading us to place too great a distance
between ourselves and our experience. Rather than seeking absolute
immunity, he argues most of us just want to hurt less and learn how
to embrace and accept what suffering we do endure in a meaningful
way. Offering a guide on how to positively engage suffering, May
ultimately lays out a new way of thinking about how we exist in the
world, one that reassures us that our suffering, rather than a
failure of physical or psychological resilience, is a powerful and
essential part of life itself.
General
Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
March 2017 |
Authors: |
Todd. May
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 24mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
232 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-43995-2 |
Categories: |
Books >
Humanities >
Philosophy >
General
Books >
Philosophy >
General
|
LSN: |
0-226-43995-X |
Barcode: |
9780226439952 |
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