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Author Pigliucci, Massimo, 1964- author.

Title A field guide to a happy life : 53 brief lessons for living / Massimo Pigliucci.

Publication Info. New York : Basic Books, 2020.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Manchester, Main Library - Non Fiction  171.2 PIGLIUCCI    Check Shelf
 South Windsor Public Library - Non Fiction  171.2 PIGLIUCCI    Check Shelf
Description viii, 151 pages ; 19 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references.
Summary "As the Modern Stoicism movement has blossomed over the past decade, its practitioners and enthusiasts have struggled with some of the movement's stranger claims. Should we really be indifferent to death of a loved one, or to our own demise? Is it truly unacceptable to care about one's work? Should we really look to nature for moral guidance? And what role does Providence have in ordering human affairs? In A Field Guide to a Happy Life, philosopher and Stoic Massimo Pigliucci has embarked on an ambitious task: offering his own view how the teachings of the Stoics can be adapted to modern mores and knowledge, taking as his inspiration the classic epitome of ancient Stoicism, Epictetus' Handbook. This is not another translation of Epictetus' teachings. Epictetus's ancient Stoicism, with its emphasis on indifference, can seem to call for us to be soulless automatons. For him, all aspiration was vanity and all grieving wrong-headed. Pigliucci is a modern master of the school, and is offering a major revision of the philosophy. This is not hubris: The ancient Stoics believed that their ideas were meant to be updated by future generations. And so Pigliucci revises or discards the teachings of ancient Stoicism that have come to seem inhumane-arguing that it's fine to want to do well at work or to mourn the loss of a loved-one-or unscientific, while retaining the doctrine's core emphasis on resilience and equanimity. In his hands, Stoicism isn't about cultivating indifference to our social and emotional lives. It's about learning to endure life's hardships without being overwhelmed, while enjoying life's pleasures without losing our heads. The Stoic philosopher Seneca once wrote that "those who advanced these doctrines before us are not our masters but our guides." Each Stoic must be their own master. In A Field Guide to a Happy Life, Pigliucci will help them find their way"-- Provided by publisher.
Subject Conduct of life.
Epictetus. Manual.
Stoics.
PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
Manual (Epictetus) (OCoLC)fst01363124
Conduct of life. (OCoLC)fst00874563
Stoics. (OCoLC)fst01133750
Added Title 53 brief lessons for living
Field guide to a happy life : fifty-three brief lessons for living
ISBN 9781541646933 (hardcover)
1541646932 (hardcover)
9781541646940 (ebook)
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