An edition of A fragile life (2017)

A fragile life

accepting our vulnerability

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Last edited by MARC Bot
December 18, 2022 | History
An edition of A fragile life (2017)

A fragile life

accepting our vulnerability

  • 0 Ratings
  • 1 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

It is perhaps our noblest cause, and certainly one of our oldest: to end suffering. Think of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, or Marcus Aurelius: stoically composed figures impervious to the torments of the wider world, living their lives in complete serenityand teaching us how to do the same. After all, isnt a life free from suffering the ideal? Isnt it what so many of us seek? Absolutely not, argues Todd May in this provocative but compassionate book. In a moving examination of life and the trials that beset it, he shows that our fragility, our ability to suffer, is actually one of the most important aspects of our humanity. May starts with a simple but hard truth: suffering is inevitable. At the most basic level, we suffer physically a sprained ankle or a bad back. But we also suffer insults and indifference. We suffer from overburdened schedules and unforeseen circumstances, from moral dilemmas and emotional heartaches. Even just thinking about our own mortalitythe fact that we only live one life can lead us to tremendous suffering. No wonder philosophies such as Buddhism, Taosim, Stoicism, and even Epicureanismall of which counsel us to rise above these plightshave had appeal over the centuries. May highlights the tremendous value of these philosophies and the ways they can guide us toward better lives, but he also exposes a major drawback to their tenets: such invulnerability is too emotionally disengaged from the world, leading us to place too great a distance between ourselves and our experience. Rather than seeking absolute immunity, he argues most of us just want to hurt less and learn how to embrace and accept what suffering we do endure in a meaningful way. Offering a guide on how to positively engage suffering, May ultimately lays out a new way of thinking about how we exist in the world, one that reassures us that our suffering, rather than a failure of physical or psychological resilience, is a powerful and essential part of life itself.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
221

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: A fragile life
Cover of: Fragile Life
Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability
2017, University of Chicago Press
in English

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Our lives and our vulnerability
The weight of our past and the weight of our future
Invulnerability
From affirmation to acceptance
Living vulnerably.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
128/.4
Library of Congress
BF698.35.V85 M39 2017, BF698.35.V8M39 2017, BF698.35.V85 M39 2017eb

The Physical Object

Pagination
viii, 221 pages
Number of pages
221

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL27238106M
Internet Archive
fragilelifeaccep0000mayt
ISBN 10
022643995X
ISBN 13
9780226439952
LCCN
2016022667
OCLC/WorldCat
950084121, 973223191

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History

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December 18, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 25, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
July 20, 2019 Created by MARC Bot import new book