The Joy of Philosophy Thinking Thin versus the Passionate Life [Paperback]

The Joy of Philosophyis a return to some of the perennial questions of philosophy--questions about the meaning of life; about death and tragedy; about the respective roles of rationality and passion in the good life; about love, compassion, and revenge; about honesty, deception, and betrayal; and about who we are and how we think about who we are.

Recapturing the heart-felt confusion and excitement that originally brings us all to philosophy, internationally renowned teacher and lecturer Robert C. Solomon offers both a critique of contemporary philosophy and an invitation to engage in philosophy in a different way. He attempts to save philosophy from itself and its self-imposed diet of thin arguments and logical analysis to recover the richness and complexity of life in thought. Solomon defends the passionate life in contrast to the life of thoughtful contemplation idealized by so many philosophers, attempting to recapture the kind of philosophy that Nietzsche celebrated as a joyful wisdom.

Introduction: Philosophy through Thick and Thin (Being and Nothing Less)
The Passionate Life
The Politics of Emotion
Justice, Sympathy, and Vengeance
The Tragic Sense of Life
Thinking Death in the Face: Death Fetishism, Morbid Solipsism
Recovering Personal Identity

Robert C. Solomonis Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of more than thirty books, includingThe Passions, In the Spirit of Hegel, From Hegel to Existentialism, About Love, APassion for Justice, A Short History of Philosophy(with Kathleen M. Higgins), andA Passion for Wisdom.