Synopsis
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.
Metapsychology
"Ferry is one of those rare philosophers . . . who writes in a non-academic style that immediately draws you in. And yet this book is much more than a simple entertainment. It's a banquet for a hungry mind, serving rich philosophy trimmed with sociology, anthropology, theology, psychology, and history. . . . What makes this book a terrific read is not the 'punch line' found in the last chapter, the ultimate answer to the question of what makes the good life; it's Ferry's illumination of the human journey through history that has brought us to this answer."—Peter B. Raabe, Metapsychology
— Peter B. Raabe