Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Joseph Agassi is professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and York University.Different in approach and style, Agassi follows Socrates in interrogating the borderline between academic philosophy and the “philosophy of life,” posing provocative assertions as invitations for readers of all backgrounds to critically engage, refute, and rethink. With a wide range of questions and the problems they address, we are reminded of the richness of the history of philosophical investigations still worthy of debate. Defending liberalism with erudition, Agassi does not shy away from controversial topics, exposing their fault lines and the potential ways of eliminating or resolving them.
- Raphael Sassower, author of The Specter of Hypocrisy,
I consider this book a must read for modern philosophers. I will surely use it for teaching on all levels of philosophy and psychology, as well as for training psychotherapists, and I am confident that others will, as well. It is a rare manuscript with the breadth and originality to serve all these needs on the humanities academic market.
- Aleksander Fatic, University of Belgrade,
This book addresses the problems of everyday life faced by twenty-first-century individuals and explores practical questions central to philosophy of life: What is a good life? What makes a life good or satisfactory? What is the proper aim of life?
Part 1: Background
Chapter 1: Universalism: The Siblinghood of Humanity
Chapter 2: Universalism versus Particularism
Chapter 3: Background to Radicalism
Chapter 4: Gradualism and Pluralism
Chapter 5: Magic and Science
Part 2: The Revolt against Reason
Chapter 6: The Problem of Rationality
Chapter 7: Theories of Rationality
Chapter 8: The Flotsam and Jetsam of Philosophy
Chapter 9: The Romantic Idea of Reason
Part 3: The New Enlightenment
Chapter 10: Minimal Standards in Ethics
Chapter 11: Minimal Standards in Politics
Chapter 12: Minimal Standards in Science
Chapter 13: Optimism as an Imperative
Chapter 14: Democracy as Optimism
Conclusion: Autonomous People in Free Society
The last decades have witnessed a renewed interest in the power of philosophy to address everyday problems, on both an individual and a social scale. The outcome has been a theoretical and practical field called 'philosophical practice,' an original approach that highlights the timely and perennial need for philosophy. This series aims to bring to the academic public the best reflections that bear on the relation of philosophy to everyday life and to the contemporary world, as grounded in experience or arguments or both. It honors the founders of this innovative field while calling for new ways of empowering philosophy by demonstrating its relevance to individual and social concerns both inside and outside academia. It thus hopes to strengthen philosophy by bringing its potency to the attention of philosophers and scholars from other disciplines, as well as to students and the general public. Series editor Lydia Amir invites seasoned and younger scholars alike, informed by any philosophic tradition, to submit original monographs, edited collections, and revised dissertations that bridge the gap between philosophy and its history, on the one hand, and life problems, on the other.
Series Editor: Lydia Amir