What Is the Good Life? - Paperback

by Luc Ferry (Author)

Has inquiry into the meaning of life become outmoded in a universe where the other-worldiness of religion no longer speaks to us as it once did, or, as Nietzsche proposed, where we are now the creators of our own value? Has the ancient question of the "good life" disappeared, another victim of the technological world? For Luc Ferry, the answer to both questions is a resounding no.

In What Is the Good Life? Ferry argues that the question of the meaning of life, on which much philosophical debate throughout the centuries has rested, has not vanished, but at the very least the question is posed differently today. Ferry points out the pressures in our secularized world that tend to reduce the idea of a successful life or "good life" to one of wealth, career satisfaction, and prestige. Without deserting the secular presuppositions of our world, he shows that we can give ourselves a richer sense of life's possibilities. The "good life" consists of harmonizing life's different forces in a way that enables one to achieve a sense of personal satisfaction in the realization of one's creative abilities.

Front Jacket

Has inquiry into the meaning of life become outmoded in a universe where the other-worldiness of religion no longer speaks to us as it once did, or, as Nietzsche proposed, where we are now the creators of our own value? Has the ancient question of the good life disappeared, another victim of the technological world? For Luc Ferry, the answer to both is a resounding no.

In What Is the Good Life? Ferry argues that the question of the meaning of life, on which much philosophical debate throughout the centuries rested, has not vanished, but rather is posed differently today. Ferry points out the pressures in our secularized world that tend to reduce the idea of a successful life or good life to one of wealth, career satisfaction, and prestige. Without deserting the secular presuppositions of our world, he shows that we can give ourselves this richer sense of life's possibilities. The good life consists of harmonizing life's different forces in a way that enables one to achieve a sense of personal satisfaction in the realization of one's creative abilities.

Beautifully and engagingly written, What Is the Good Life? provides new insight and wisdom into one of life's most enduring philosophical questions. A major publishing event upon its publication in France, this elegant translation will reignite passionate dialogue about the meaning of life among readers in English as well.

Author Biography

Luc Ferry has taught at the Sorbonne and at the University of Caen and is the former Minister of Youth, National Education, and Research in the French government. He is the author or coauthor of eight previous books published by the University of Chicago Press, including, most recently, The New Ecological Order and Man Made God. Lydia G. Cochrane has translated several books from French and Italian for the University Chicago Press, including Alain Boureau's The Lord's First Night and Renzo Dubbini's Geography of the Gaze.