Fr. 32.90

Good Enough Life

English · Paperback / Softback

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Description

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This book is a highly original exploration of what life could and should be. It juxtaposes a philosophical enquiry into the nature of the good life with an ethnography of people living in a small Irish town.
 
Attending carefully to the everyday lives of these people, the ethnographic chapters examine topics ranging from freedom and inequality to the creation of community and the purpose of life. These chapters alternate with discussions of similar topics by a wide range of philosophers in the Western tradition, from Socrates and the Stoics through Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger to Adorno, Rawls, MacIntyre, and Nussbaum.
 
As an ethnography, this book reveals just how much we can learn from a respectful acknowledgement of what ordinary modest people have achieved. By creating community as a deliberate and social project that provides the foundation for a more fulfilling life, where affluence has not led to an increase in individualism, the people in this town have found a way to live the good enough life. The book also shows how anthropology and philosophy can complement and enrich one another in an enquiry into what we might accomplish in our lives.

List of contents

Acknowledgements
 
Introduction: Cuan and Kant
 
1: An Exceptionally Free Society
 
2: Philosophers of Freedom
 
3: The First Satiable Society
 
4: Philosophers and Consumerism
 
5: Inequality, Drugs and Depression
 
6: Justice as Fairness
 
7: The Body and Sports
 
8: The Origins of Philosophy in Sport
 
9: Creating Community
 
10: Placing Heidegger
 
11: Engaging the World
 
12: The Stoics and Epicurus
 
13: Hegel, Cuan, Anthropology and Philosophy
 
Endnotes
 
Bibliography

About the author










Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at University College London.

Summary

This book is a highly original exploration of what life could and should be. It juxtaposes a philosophical enquiry into the nature of the good life with an ethnography of people living in a small Irish town.

Attending carefully to the everyday lives of these people, the ethnographic chapters examine topics ranging from freedom and inequality to the creation of community and the purpose of life. These chapters alternate with discussions of similar topics by a wide range of philosophers in the Western tradition, from Socrates and the Stoics through Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger to Adorno, Rawls, MacIntyre, and Nussbaum.

As an ethnography, this book reveals just how much we can learn from a respectful acknowledgement of what ordinary modest people have achieved. By creating community as a deliberate and social project that provides the foundation for a more fulfilling life, where affluence has not led to an increase in individualism, the people in this town have found a way to live the good enough life. The book also shows how anthropology and philosophy can complement and enrich one another in an enquiry into what we might accomplish in our lives.

Report

'Miller's book is a brilliant case for the importance of a book of praise, as distinct from the customary critique, showing what it means for a society to allow its members a good life in a world of much one-sided individualism.'
Arne Johan Vetlesen, University of Oslo
 
'Daniel Miller shows us what a truly humane anthropology can be. In an age of rhetorical drama his writing can seem disarmingly modest in tone, but the conversation he prompts between philosophy and fieldwork yields rich ethnographic insights.'
Webb Keane, University of Michigan and author of Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories
 
'a rich description of cultural life'
The Irish Times

Product details

Authors Daniel Miller, Daniel (University College London Miller
Publisher Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
 
Languages English
Product format Paperback / Softback
Released 24.11.2023
 
EAN 9781509559657
ISBN 978-1-5095-5965-7
No. of pages 280
Subjects Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories

Anthropologie, Philosophie, Anthropology, Philosophy, Social & cultural anthropology, Soziale u. kulturelle Anthropologie, Allg. Philosophie, European Anthropology, Anthropologie / Europa

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