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Explores boredom's intellectual history from its early origins to the modern day. Essential reading for students and researchers in the history of philosophy, emotion studies, phenomenology, and moral psychology. It will also interest scholars in religion, classics, sociology, and the history of psychology.
List of contents
Notes on Contributors Introduction: Histories of Boredom
Andreas Elpidorou and Josefa Ros Velasco Part 1: Ancient Philosophical Perspectives 1. Boredom as a Vice of the Mind. The Contrastive Method of Socratic Dialogue
Laura Candiotto 2. East Side Story: Daoism and Buddhism on the Nature of Boredom
Seok Bongrae 3. Ancient Cynics on Boredom: Only the Boring Are Bored
Glenn M. Trujillo, Jr. 4. Boredom in Seneca's
Epistles: Sameness and Stoic Aesthetics
Chiara Graf Part 2: Religious and Medieval Explorations 5. Boredom in Jewish Tradition: Longing for Radical Amazement
Erica Brown 6. The Sin of Our Age: Acedia in Early Christianity and in the Present
Peter Toohey and Danielle Greenberg 7. Make Grace Come Green Again: Medieval Perspectives on Boredom
Michael L. Raposa 8. Noetic Boredom: Acedia, Dejection, and the Virtues in the Philokalia and Tibetan Buddhism
Thomas Cattoi Part 3: Modern Philosophical Investigations 9. A Mental Diatetic to Avoid (European) Boredom: Kant as a Life Coach
Nuria Sánchez Madrid 10. Boredom, Motivation, and the Value of Life: Schopenhauer, Mill, and Nietzsche
Joshua Isaac Fox 11. Boredom in Philosophical Pessimism: Philipp Mainländer
Ignacio Moya Arriagada 12. Boredom, Despair, and Faith in Kierkegaard
Megan Altman and Adam Buben Part 4: Critical and Interdisciplinary Approaches 13. Is There Intentionality in Boredom? Phenomenological Perspectives
Carmen López Sáenz 14. The Experience of Boredom in Classical Contemporaneity
Josefa Ros Velasco 15. Spectacular Desolation: Boredom as a Political Phenomenon
Elizabeth S. Goodstein 16. Capitalism, Socialism, Boredom: The "Object as Comrade"
Michael E. Gardiner 17. Racialized Boredom
Sierra Sheard and Andreas Elpidorou 18. Transhumanism: The tedium and Dilemmas of Transcending the Mortal Condition
Esther Sánchez González. Index
About the author
Andreas Elpidorou is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisville, USA. His books include
The Anatomy of Boredom (2025), and
Propelled: How Boredom, Frustration, and Anticipation Lead Us to the Good Life (2020).
Josefa Ros Velasco holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and has received the Spanish National Research Award in 2022. Currently, she is a Professor at ESIC University and leads as PI the "PRE-BORED" project, funded by the EU H2020 program. She is the author of
The Disease of Boredom (2025).
