Research Catalog

Title

A fragile life : accepting our vulnerability / Todd May.

Author

May, Todd, 1955-

Publication

• Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 221 pages; 23 cm

Summary

It is perhaps our noblest cause, and certainly one of our oldest: to end suffering. Think of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, or Marcus Aurelius: stoically composed figures impervious to the torments of the wider world, living their lives in complete serenityand teaching us how to do the same. After all, isn't a life free from suffering the ideal? Isn't it what so many of us seek? Absolutely not, argues Todd May in this provocative but compassionate book. In a moving examination of life and the trials that beset it, he shows that our fragility, our ability to suffer, is actually one of the most important aspects of our humanity. May starts with a simple but hard truth: suffering is inevitable. At the most basic level, we suffer physically, a sprained ankle or a bad back. But we also suffer insults and indifference. We suffer from overburdened schedules and unforeseen circumstances, from moral dilemmas and emotional heartaches. Even just thinking about our own mortality, the fact that we only live one life, can lead us to tremendous suffering. No wonder philosophies such as Buddhism, Taosim, Stoicism, and even Epicureanism, all of which counsel us to rise above these plights, have had appeal over the centuries. May highlights the tremendous value of these philosophies and the ways they can guide us toward better lives, but he also exposes a major drawback to their tenets: such invulnerability is too emotionally disengaged from the world, leading us to place too great a distance between ourselves and our experience. Rather than seeking absolute immunity, he argues most of us just want to hurt less and learn how to embrace and accept what suffering we do endure in a meaningful way. Offering a guide on how to positively engage suffering, May ultimately lays out a new way of thinking about how we exist in the world, one that reassures us that our suffering, rather than a failure of physical or psychological resilience, is a powerful and essential part of life itself.

Subject

Vulnerability (Personality trait)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Our lives and our vulnerability -- The weight of our past and the weight of our future -- Invulnerability -- From affirmation to acceptance -- Living vulnerably.

Call Number

JFD 19-4948

ISBN

• 9780226439952
• 022643995X
• 9780226440019 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

• 2016022667
• 99970813133

OCLC

950084121

Author

May, Todd, 1955- author.

Title

A fragile life : accepting our vulnerability / Todd May.

Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Copyright Date

©2017

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Note

AUTH: CLEMSON UNIVERSITY. PHILOSOPHICAL LOOK AT THE VALUE OF SUFFERING, ETC.

Other Form:

Ebook version : 9780226440019

Other Standard Identifier

99970813133

Research Call Number

JFD 19-4948