The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters (Philosophy in Action) - Hardcover

Hurka, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195331427 ISBN 13: 9780195331424

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

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?

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Hurka is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto and the author of Virtue, Vice, and Value; Principles: Short Essays on Ethics; and Perfectionism.

Reviews

What did poet Philip Larkin mean by the “catching of happiness”? Should we, in any case, spend our lives chasing happiness, or should we instead cultivate virtue or knowledge? Exploring such questions, Hurka surveys the range of human goods and investigates the ways a reflective person can make meaningful choices in fostering these goods. And though Hurka challenges the hedonist’s belief that pleasure defines goodness, he rejects the narrow orthodoxies of the Stoics and the classical Greek philosophers, arguing that a good life can take many different forms. A competitive athlete may thus enjoy as full a life as a compassionate physician. But the satisfactions of any life path—as Hurka recognizes—depend heavily on loving companions. Acute analysis illuminates how human relationships change and enlarge us. Religious readers may wish that Hurka had invested comparable effort in considering how faith can likewise transform life—and death. But all readers will thank Hurka for his fresh insights into the fundamental challenges everyone faces in journeying from cradle to grave. --Bryce Christensen

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195331427
• ISBN 13: 9780195331424
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208