A Guide to the Good Life
A Guide to the Good Life

Author: William B. Irvine

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-11-04

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0199792623

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One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life. Using the psychological insights and the practical techniques of the Stoics, Irvine offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to avoid the feelings of chronic dissatisfaction that plague so many of us. Irvine looks at various Stoic techniques for attaining tranquility and shows how to put these techniques to work in our own life. As he does so, he describes his own experiences practicing Stoicism and offers valuable first-hand advice for anyone wishing to live better by following in the footsteps of these ancient philosophers. Readers learn how to minimize worry, how to let go of the past and focus our efforts on the things we can control, and how to deal with insults, grief, old age, and the distracting temptations of fame and fortune. We learn from Marcus Aurelius the importance of prizing only things of true value, and from Epictetus we learn how to be more content with what we have. Finally, A Guide to the Good Life shows readers how to become thoughtful observers of their own lives. If we watch ourselves as we go about our daily business and later reflect on what we saw, we can better identify the sources of distress and eventually avoid that pain in our life. By doing this, the Stoics thought, we can hope to attain a truly joyful life.

The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient
The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient

Author: William B. Irvine

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 0393652505

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“The ultimate mental fitness program” (David Heinemeier Hansson, coauthor of Rework), The Stoic Challenge teaches us how to respond to the challenges of our increasingly unpredictable age. In this practical, refreshingly optimistic guide, philosopher William B. Irvine explains how centuries-old wisdom can help us better cope with everything from the everyday stresses of modern living to its significant crises. The Stoic Challenge uniquely combines insights from ancient Stoics like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus with techniques discovered by contemporary psychological research, such as anchoring and framing. The result is Irvine’s surprisingly simple, updated “Stoic test strategy,” which teaches us how to dramatically alter our emotional response to life’s stumbling blocks. Not only can we overcome these obstacles?we can benefit from them, too.

How to Live a Good Life
How to Live a Good Life

Author: Massimo Pigliucci

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2020-01-07

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0525566155

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A collection of essays by fifteen philosophers presenting a thoughtful, introductory guide to choosing a philosophy for living an examined and meaningful life. Socrates famously said "the unexamined life is not worth living," but what does it mean to truly live philosophically? This thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection brings together essays by fifteen leading philosophers reflecting on what it means to live according to a philosophy of life. From Eastern philosophies (Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) and classical Western philosophies (such as Aristotelianism and Stoicism), to the four major religions, as well as contemporary philosophies (such as existentialism and effective altruism), each contributor offers a lively, personal account of how they find meaning in the practice of their chosen philosophical tradition. Together, the pieces in How to Live a Good Life provide not only a beginner's guide to choosing a life philosophy but also a timely portrait of what it means to live an examined life in the twenty-first century. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL

How to Live the Good Life:
How to Live the Good Life:

Author: Arthur Jackson

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2019-04-03

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1532071426

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Preposterous, challenging, stimulating. “A note of caution: this is not an easy read. Nor is it for the detached, uninvolved person. The author invites readers to accompany him on a journey of self-discovery and provides a road map to boot, rarely presented in such a clear and comprehensive way. The breadth and depth of Arthur Jackson’s knowledge and experience become obvious early on as he presents a plethora of views from well-known and lesser-known philosophers, psychiatrists, psychologists, mathematicians, and others who influenced modern Western ideologies . . . This is a compendium of knowledge and insight nonpareil—truly a masterwork!” —Adrienne Juliano, member, Foundation for Mind-Being Research Arthur Jackson’s book is the product of his lifelong struggle to find a naturalistic alternative to traditional folk religions (like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism) capable of providing comparable emotional support. This effort led to what is now recognized as a science of religion and ethics—a religion of wisdom providing guidance to any person interested in making moral and ethical choices. I believe that until a concrete science of religion and ethics exists and organizes to apply its findings, humanity will continue to struggle to create these things. How to Live the Good Life: A User’s Guide for Modern Humans is a fascinating and eye-opening guide aimed at helping people experience more joy and achieving their full, positive potential.

The Good Life Book
The Good Life Book

Author: Brett Cowell

Publisher:

Published: 2017-03-13

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780997682403

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Transform your life in 30 days.We are all working hard, but are we working on the right things? We all want to live a good life, yet life itself sometimes seems to get in the way. Based on the author's two decades of experience in helping the leaders of large organizations effect change, this book presents a fresh and structured approach on to how to transform our own lives--to feel alive and to minimize regrets.You will read about how to apply the three disciplines of a good life: Directing Energy Unlocking Potential Enabling GrowthYou'll use these disciplines to not only change your life, but also sustain the benefits of that change through the inevitable highs and lows that come with being human.

The Good Life Method
The Good Life Method

Author: Meghan Sullivan

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2022-01-04

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1984880314

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Two Philosophers Ask and Answer the Big Questions About the Search for Faith and Happiness For seekers of all stripes, philosophy is timeless self-care. Notre Dame philosophy professors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko have reinvigorated this tradition in their wildly popular and influential undergraduate course “God and the Good Life,” in which they wrestle with the big questions about how to live and what makes life meaningful. Now they invite us into the classroom to work through issues like what justifies our beliefs, whether we should practice a religion and what sacrifices we should make for others—as well as to investigate what figures such as Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Iris Murdoch, and W. E. B. Du Bois have to say about how to live well. Sullivan and Blaschko do the timeless work of philosophy using real-world case studies that explore love, finance, truth, and more. In so doing, they push us to escape our own caves, ask stronger questions, explain our deepest goals, and wrestle with suffering, the nature of death, and the existence of God. Philosophers know that our “good life plan” is one that we as individuals need to be constantly and actively writing to achieve some meaningful control and sense of purpose even if the world keeps throwing surprises our way. For at least the past 2,500 years, philosophers have taught that goal-seeking is an essential part of what it is to be human—and crucially that we could find our own good life by asking better questions of ourselves and of one another. This virtue ethics approach resonates profoundly in our own moment. The Good Life Method is a winning guide to tackling the big questions of being human with the wisdom of the ages.

The Good and the Good Book
The Good and the Good Book

Author: Samuel Fleischacker

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 0198733070

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Religions that center around a revelation--or a 'good book', which is seen as God's word--are widely regarded as irrational and dangerous, based on outdated science and conducive to illiberal, inhumane moral attitudes. Samuel Fleischacker offers a powerful defense of revealed religion, and reconciles it with science and liberal morality.

The Southerner's Handbook
The Southerner's Handbook

Author: Editors of Garden and Gun

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-10-29

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0062242423

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Whether you live below the Mason Dixon Line or just wish you did, The Southerner’s Handbook is your guide to living the good life. Curated by the editors of the award-winning Garden & Gun magazine, this compilation of more than 100 instructional and narrative essays offers a comprehensive tutorial to modern-day life in the South. From Food and Drink to Sporting & Adventure; Home & Garden to Style, Arts & Culture, you'll discover essential skills and unique insight from some of the South’s finest writers, chefs, and craftsmen—including the secret to perfect biscuits, how to wear seersucker, and to the right way to fall off of a horse. You'll also find: Roy Blount Jr. on telling a great story; Julia Reed on the secrets of throwing a great party; Jonathan Miles on drinking like a Southerner; Jack Hitt on the beauty of cooking a whole hog; John T Edge on why Southern food matters; and much more. As flavorful, authentic, and irresistible as the land and the people who inspire it, The Southerner's Handbook is the ultimate guide to being a Southerner (no matter where you live).

The Best Things in Life
The Best Things in Life

Author: Thomas Hurka

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-12-03

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0199752613

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For centuries, philosophers, theologians, moralists, and ordinary people have asked: How should we live? What makes for a good life? In The Best Things in Life, distinguished philosopher Thomas Hurka takes a fresh look at these perennial questions as they arise for us now in the 21st century. Should we value family over career? How do we balance self-interest and serving others? What activities bring us the most joy? While religion, literature, popular psychology, and everyday wisdom all grapple with these questions, philosophy more than anything else uses the tools of reason to make important distinctions, cut away irrelevancies, and distill these issues down to their essentials. Hurka argues that if we are to live a good life, one thing we need to know is which activities and experiences will most likely lead us to happiness and which will keep us from it, while also reminding us that happiness isn't the only thing that makes life good. Hurka explores many topics: four types of good feeling (and the limits of good feeling); how we can improve our baseline level of happiness (making more money, it turns out, isn't the answer); which kinds of knowledge are most worth having; the importance of achieving worthwhile goals; the value of love and friendship; and much more. Unlike many philosophers, he stresses that there isn't just one good in life but many: pleasure, as Epicurus argued, is indeed one, but knowledge, as Socrates contended, is another, as is achievement. And while the great philosophers can help us understand what matters most in life, Hurka shows that we must ultimately decide for ourselves. This delightfully accessible book offers timely guidance on answering the most important question any of us will ever ask: How do we live a good life?

Seeing Clearly
Seeing Clearly

Author: Nicolas Bommarito

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0190887508

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For many of us, no matter what we do, no matter how well we try to distract ourselves, there is always a buzz of anxiety in the background of our minds. We can never truly connect with others or focus on the task at hand. Life's worries, big and small, fill us with dread. Many of our intuitive ways of experiencing the world, especially how we feel about ourselves, are mistaken. Buddhist thought and practice offer tools to dispel the buzz, and to engage with life in an authentic and meaningful way, by showing us how to see the world more clearly. If we only see the world through the prism of ourselves, we see it incorrectly--we miss the point. Philosopher Nic Bommarito explores how centuries-old Buddhist techniques can teach us to get out of our own way, learn to understand how the world really is, and take steps to change our experiences of it. This short and friendly primer presents a guide to the good life that anyone can follow, laying out the basic philosophical ideas behind Buddhism's teachings and offering practical techniques and practices.