Life Is Hard
By Kieran Setiya
- Genre
- Psychology, Philosophy & Personal Development
- Publisher
- Riverhead Books (Penguin Random House)
- Publication year
- 2022
- ISBN
- 9780593538210
Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way is a work of philosophy by Kieran Setiya, published by Riverhead Books in October 2022. It draws on ancient and modern thinkers to address adversity such as illness, grief and failure. It was named a best book of 2022 by The New Yorker and...
Most philosophy promises the good life; Kieran Setiya begins instead with the hard one. Life Is Hard is a work of consolation for realists, taking seriously the fact that lives contain illness, loneliness, grief, failure and injustice, and asking what philosophy - ancient and modern - can offer not as a cure but as company. Setiya, an MIT philosopher, writes with unusual warmth for an academic, weaving Aristotle and Iris Murdoch with his own chronic pain and midlife doubts. He resists easy uplift, arguing that acknowledging difficulty honestly is itself a form of help. intendle recommends it for readers who find relentless positivity hollow and want a wiser, more humane companion for the rough passages. Named a best book of 2022 by The New Yorker and The Economist, it is compact, humane and quietly profound. A rare self-help book that treats its reader as a thinking adult facing real trouble.