Bücher der Reihe The Art of Living

Fame was once associated with excellence or achievement in some or other field of endeavour. One of the most distinctive cultural phenomena over the years has been the rise and rise of fame. This book shows why this new fame is simultaneously fascinating and worthless.

Forgiveness usually gets a very good press in our culture. This book offers an understanding of forgiveness allows us to avoid cheap and shallow forms of it, and enables us to see why it is right and admirable to forgive even unrepentant wrongdoers.

For Aristotle being hopeful was part of a well-lived life, a virtue. For Aquinas it was a fundamentally theological virtue and for Kant a basic moral motivation. Drawing on everyday examples as well as discussion of hope in the arenas of medicine, politics and religion, this title shows how hopefulness in not the same as hope.

Shows how we might think about and, more importantly, live our lives in view of the inescapability of our dying. This book considers the possibility that our mortal deaths are the end of us, and asks what this might mean for our living.

Argues that positive psychology has overlooked and sidelined the ancient wisdom on wellbeing, notably from the Greek philosophers. This work shows that wellbeing is not found in a focus on pleasure, or even the pursuit of happiness itself. Rather, it is a question of meaning and responding to the great challenge: the search for transcendence.

Middle age, for many, marks a key period for a radical reappraisal of one's life and way of living. This book explores the moods, emotions and experiences of middle age in the contemporary world, seeking to describe and analyze that period of life philosophically. It is suitable for those heading for a 'mid-life crisis'.

"This warm and witty book does something wonderful: it brings the great ideas of philosophy into our lives. Young is a bright new voice."John Armstrong, author of Love, Life, Goethe: How to be Happy in an Imperfect World

An exploration of love, a subject that has occupied philosophers since the time of Plato. Tackling the mood of pessimism about the nature of love that reaches back through Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard, it examines the links between love and grief, love and nature, and between love of others and loving oneself.

Colin Feltham brings a much needed perspective on our perpetual striving towards perfectibility. Time to accept our non-omniscience and to rethink what it means to fail.