Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.13 (504 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0374150850 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 432 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-07-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Kant elaborated a new ideal of autonomy. Montaigne and Descartes struggled to explore their deepest convictions in eras of murderous religious warfare. Diogenes carried a bright lamp in broad daylight and announced he was “looking for a man.” Aristotle’s alliance with Alexander the Great presaged Seneca’s complex role in the court of the Roman Emperor Nero. With a flair for paradox and rich anecdote, Examined Lives is a book that confirms the continuing relevance of philosophy today—and explores the most urgent questions about what it means to live a good life.. A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 We all want to know how to live. And Nietzsche tried “to compose into one and bring together what is fragment and riddle and dreadful chance in man,” before he lapsed into catatonic madness. But before the good life was reduced to ten easy steps or a prescription from the doctor, philosophers offered arresting answers to the most fundamental questions about who we are and what makes for a life worth living.In Examined Lives, James Miller returns to this vibrant tradition with short, lively biographies of twelve famous philosophers. His most famous student, Plato, risked his reputation to tutor a tyrant. Augustine discovered God within himself. Rousseau aspired to a life of perfect virtue. Socrates spent his life examining himself and the assumptions of others. Emerson successfully preached a gospel of self-relian
Richard N. Flynn said A Wonderful Read. It's easy to forget that philosophy has any relation to the concerns of real life. This collection of short biographies reminds us that, for some of history's most eminent philosophers, real life and philosophy aren't truly distinguishable from one another. In each biography, Miller also deftly outlines the subject's philosophical . Life of the Mind In his new book, Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche, James Miller reexamines one of philosophy's original prerogatives: to teach by example. The Greeks, and later the Romans, saw the conduct of a thinker as every bit as important as their thought. For this reason we find biographical compilations, such as Diogenes Laertius . J. Marlin said My most thought-provoking read all summer. This book made me think more and harder than any other recent book I've read (not counting old works I re-read that make me think equally as hard). And it wasn't so much that this book made me think hard about Seneca or Montaigne or Nietzsche (which, of course, it did); it made me think harder about myself. And I think that might h
Likewise we are made privy to a Descartes struggling to avoid religious controversy and a contradictory, sometimes paranoid Rousseau determined to publicly justify the abandonment of his own children to orphanages. Miller remains neutral, preferring to juxtapose the behavior of his subjects side by side with their words, even if, as in the cases of Socrates and Diogenes, so much still remains unknown about their lives. All rights reserved. From Publishers Weekly Miller (The Passion of Michel Foucault) profiles 12 thinkers whose philosophies may have been consistent but whose engagements with the social and political mores of their time were far more fraught. From Plato's failure to mold the tyrant Dionysius into a philosopher king through Seneca's murky relatio