Publisher Description

Winner of the 2015 Hiett Prize in the Humanities. 

Sometimes it seems like you need a PhD just to open a book of philosophy. We leave philosophical matters to the philosophers in the same way that we leave science to scientists. Scott Samuelson thinks this is tragic, for our lives as well as for philosophy. In The Deepest Human Life he takes philosophy back from the specialists and restores it to its proper place at the center of our humanity, rediscovering it as our most profound effort toward understanding, as a way of life that anyone can live. Exploring the works of some of history's most important thinkers in the context of the everyday struggles of his students, he guides us through the most vexing quandaries of our existence—and shows just how enriching the examined life can be.           
Samuelson begins at the beginning: with Socrates, working his most famous assertion—that wisdom is knowing that one knows nothing—into a method, a way of approaching our greatest mysteries. From there he springboards into a rich history of philosophy and the ways its journey is encoded in our own quests for meaning. He ruminates on Epicurus against the sonic backdrop of crickets and restaurant goers in Iowa City. He follows the Stoics into the cell where James Stockdale spent seven years as a prisoner of war. He spins with al-Ghazali first in doubt, then in the ecstasy of the divine. And he gets the philosophy education of his life when one of his students, who authorized a risky surgery for her son that inadvertently led to his death, asks with tears in her eyes if Kant was right, if it really is the motive that matters and not the consequences. Through heartbreaking stories, humanizing biographies, accessible theory, and evocative interludes like "On Wine and Bicycles" or "On Zombies and Superheroes ," he invests philosophy with the personal and vice versa. The result is a book that is at once a primer and a reassurance—that the most important questions endure, coming to life in each of us. 
 

Author Biography

Scott Samuelson lives in Iowa City, Iowa, where he teaches philosophy at Kirkwood Community College and is a movie reviewer, television host, and sous-chef at a French restaurant on a gravel road.

Table of Contents

Prelude on Light Pollution and the Stars Part 1 What Is Philosophy? 1 Portrait of You as Odysseus 2 Portrait of Philosophy as Socrates Interlude on Laughter and Tears Part 2 What Is Happiness? 3 The Exquisite Materialism of Epicurus 4 The Mysterious Freedom of the Stoic Interlude on Wine and Bicycles Part 3 Is Knowledge of God Possible? 5 The Ecstasy without a Name 6 In Nightmares Begins Rationality 7 The Terrifying Distance of the Stars Interlude on Campfires and the Sun Part 4 What Is the Nature of Good and Evil? 8 The Moral Worth of a Teardrop 9 The Beast That Is and Is Not Interlude on Superheroes and Zombies Conclusion: The Most Beautiful Thing in the World Acknowledgments Recommended Further Reading Notes Index

Review

"As a freshman in college, Samuelson fought with classmates over whether philosophy was essential for a meaningful life. Fortunately, he's still fighting. Defying the widespread perception of philosophy as an academic specialty, Samuelson urges readers to join him in a humanizing intellectual adventure, one that begins with Socrates's frank profession of ignorance.... But perhaps no one teaches more than Samuelson's own diverse college students-a wine-loving bicyclist, a sleep-deprived housewife, a monk-faced factory worker. These seemingly ordinary people underscore the most important lesson of all: philosophy matters for everyone." (Booklist)

Review Quote

"The Deepest Human Life offers us the kinds of tools we have always needed to face Pascal's implicit challenge to face ourselves, difficult though the task may be."

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