Philosophy for Life

What Hacker News says

1. onion2kJul 2016
   Anything by Alain De Botton but especially "Consollations of Philosophy" and "Status Anxiety", "How To Live: Micheal De Montaigne" by Sarah Bakewell, and "Philosophy for Life" by Jules Evans. None of them are hardcore academic works; they're just really interesting introductions to how philosophy can actually be useful.
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2. tim333Jul 2014
   I tried reading that and found it fairly bad. Even the opening sentence "Animals are happy so long as they have health and enough to eat" is bollocks. I rather liked the "Happiness Hypothesis" by Haidt although it's more of an academic look at the area than a self help book. Also "Philosophy for Life: And other dangerous situations" is good on the philosophical side.
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3. onion2kFeb 2014
   Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1].

   Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right.

   [1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy For Life (And Other Dangerous Situations)" by Jules Evans or "Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain De Botton as a starting point.

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4. elf_m_sternbergMar 2014
   Ditto everyone else's comments. This is a really good book. Readers should be aware that Irvine's goal of "persistent tranquility" isn't really what the Stoics had in mind; their objective was much more radical, in the same way that TED-talk "mindfulness" is a parboiled version of a much more radical Buddhism.

   But still, a good intro.

   There are other good Stoicism books, and anyone who's been through cognitive behavioral therapy will find Irvine's book a bit of a refresher course. Anyone have any comments about "Philosophy for Life" or "Stocism and the Art of Happiness"?

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