Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations

Author: Jules Evans
Publisher: New World Library
ISBN: 1608682307
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
When philosophy rescued him from an emotional crisis, Jules Evans became fascinated by how ideas invented over two thousand years ago can help us today. He interviewed soldiers, psychologists, gangsters, astronauts, and anarchists and discovered the ways that people are using philosophy now to build better lives. Ancient philosophy has inspired modern communities — Socratic cafés, Stoic armies, Epicurean communes — and even whole nations in the quest for the good life. This book is an invitation to a dream school with a rowdy faculty that includes twelve of the greatest philosophers from the ancient world, sharing their lessons on happiness, resilience, and much more. Lively and inspiring, this is philosophy for the street, for the workplace, for the battlefield, for love, for life.

The Art of Losing Control

Author: Jules Evans
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1782118772
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Book Description
Humans have always sought ecstatic experiences - moments where they go beyond their ordinary self and feel connected to something greater than them. Such moments are fundamental to human flourishing, but they can also be dangerous. Beginning around the Enlightenment, western intellectual culture has written off ecstasy as ignorance or delusion. But philosopher Jules Evans argues that this diminishes our reality and denies us the healing, connection and meaning that ecstasy can bring. He sets out to discover how people find ecstasy in a post-religious culture, how it can be good for us, and also harmful. Along the way, he explores the growing science of ecstasy, to help the reader - and himself - learn the art of losing control. Jules' exploration of ecstasy is an intellectual and emotional odyssey balancing personal experience, interviews and readings from ancient and modern philosophers that will change the way you think about how you feel. From Aristotle and Plato, via the Bishop of London and Sister Bliss, radical jihadis and Silicon Valley transhumanists, The Art of Losing Control is a funny and life-enhancing journey through under-explored terrain.

Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations

Author: Jules Evans
Publisher: New World Library
ISBN: 1608682293
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Breaking Open

Author: Jules Evans
Publisher: Aeon Books
ISBN: 191280770X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Book Description
Personal accounts exploring the shift from mental illness to spiritual awakening. The first book in which people discuss their own spiritual emergencies and share what helped them through. Our authors are the experts of their own experience, and they share their wild journeys with courage, insight and poetry. There are fascinating parallels in their experiences, suggesting minds in extremis go to similar places. These are beautiful postcards from the edge of human consciousness, testaments to the soul's natural resilience. Our authors have returned from their descent with valuable insights for our culture, as we go through a collective spiritual emergency, with old myths and structures breaking down, and new possibilities breaking open. What is there beyond our present egocentric model of reality? What tools can help us navigate the emergence? "This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the connection between spiritual awakening and what we normally term 'mental illness.' It is full of inspirational and moving stories that show that psychological disturbances often lead to significant personal growth, if supported properly. As a culture, we urgently need a new paradigm of mental illness and treatment, and this and this book makes an important contribution to that shift.' Steve Taylor PhD, author of The Leap and Spiritual Science

How to Live a Good Life

Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525566155
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
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

Political Emotions

Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674728297
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 461

Book Description
How can we achieve and sustain a "decent" liberal society, one that aspires to justice and equal opportunity for all and inspires individuals to sacrifice for the common good? In this book, a continuation of her explorations of emotions and the nature of social justice, Martha Nussbaum makes the case for love. Amid the fears, resentments, and competitive concerns that are endemic even to good societies, public emotions rooted in love—in intense attachments to things outside our control—can foster commitment to shared goals and keep at bay the forces of disgust and envy. Great democratic leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., have understood the importance of cultivating emotions. But people attached to liberalism sometimes assume that a theory of public sentiments would run afoul of commitments to freedom and autonomy. Calling into question this perspective, Nussbaum investigates historical proposals for a public "civil religion" or "religion of humanity" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, and Rabindranath Tagore. She offers an account of how a decent society can use resources inherent in human psychology, while limiting the damage done by the darker side of our personalities. And finally she explores the cultivation of emotions that support justice in examples drawn from literature, song, political rhetoric, festivals, memorials, and even the design of public parks. "Love is what gives respect for humanity its life," Nussbaum writes, "making it more than a shell." Political Emotionsis a challenging and ambitious contribution to political philosophy.

A Good Life

Author: Mark Rowlands
Publisher: Granta Publications
ISBN: 1847089518
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
Framed by the story of a son finding his late father’s journal, a meditation on love, meaning, and morality by the author of The Philosopher and the Wolf. Myshkin was born on a certain day and died on a certain day—and some things happened to him in between. These things presented him with ethical questions, and this book is a record of his attempt to answer those questions. Discovered in 2054 by his son after Myshkin's death in the Florida Keys, A Good Life is one man's reckoning with the life he has led and the choices he made. It is at once a philosophical handbook for living and a page-turning narrative, following one man's life (birth, death, education, religion, morality, illness, and so on) told through a philosophical lens. It is a riveting examination of the ethical questions we face, and the decisions we must make, and a defense of the idea that at the beating heart of morality we find love. Sometimes profoundly funny, sometimes deeply serious, A Good Life is as readable as a novel and as provocative as the best philosophy. It is the finest work to date by a charming and brilliant thinker. “A lovely writer, funny and moving.”—Observer

Holiday From The Self

Author: Jules Evans
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781074938772
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 78

Book Description
In October 2017, philosopher Jules Evans traveled to the Amazon jungle to take part in a nine-day ayahuasca retreat. This is the story of his adventure, and the turbulent two weeks after the retreat. It explores the contemporary phenomenon of ayahuasca tourism, and the clash of very different cultures. It looks at the extraordinary opportunities and risks of psychedelic therapy. And it gives you a first-hand account of a 'spiritual emergency' - a messy spiritual awakening - and the tools you need to get through them. It's a testament to the mind's ability to go to some wild places, and come back intact. Jules is a historian of ecstatic experiences and an expert in spiritual emergencies. He is a research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London; a BBC New Generation Thinker, and the organizer of the London Philosophy Club. Praise for Jules' previous books, Philosophy for Life & Other Dangerous Situations (2012) and The Art of Losing Control: 'A revelation'. The Observer'This book changed my life.' Adrian Edmondson'He reminds us philosophy is not just about analysis. It's also about the good life.' Matthew Syed, Times Book of the Year'His sensitivity as a thinker, like his skill as a storyteller, is never in doubt.' The Guardian'Evans is a natural storyteller and his honesty about his own experience is refreshing and disarming. Evans takes his subject matter seriously but delivers his investigations in an endlessly amusing and eye-opening manner.' The Big Issue'Hugely enjoyed Philosophy for Life. Am an avid fan of classical philosophy & this book applies it thoroughly & beautifully.' Derren BrownFind out more at www.philosophyforlife.org

Philosophy in the Present

Author: Alain Badiou
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745640974
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 117

Book Description
Two controversial thinkers discuss a timeless but nonetheless urgent question: should philosophy interfere in the world? Nothing less than philosophy is at stake because, according to Badiou, philosophy is nothing but interference and commitment and will not be restrained by academic discipline. Philosophy is strange and new, and yet speaks in the name of all - as Badiou shows with his theory of universality. Similarly, Zizek believes that the philosopher must intervene, contrary to all expectations, in the key issues of the time. He can offer no direction, but this only shows that the question has been posed incorrectly: it is valid to change the terms of the debate and settle on philosophy as abnormality and excess. At once an invitation to philosophy and an introduction to the thinking of two of the most topical and controversial philosophers writing today, this concise volume will be of great interest to students and general readers alike.

Sophie's World

Author: Jostein Gaarder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466804270
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 735

Book Description
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.