The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life.
Passion, mercy, generosity, politeness, good faith, justice, humour, fidelity, tolerance, love, courage . . .
For all its relative neglect in recent decades, much of the history of philosophy is the history of ethics. From Plato to Sartre, the great philosophers have returned to the central ethical questions of how, particularly if we are not religious, we are to live good lives; how is appropriate and virtuous for us to behave, both to ourselves and to others? How are we to act when loyalty demands of us one response, honesty another? What are we to do when the demands of justice and compassion conflict?
This book is at once a return to the mainstream of much of the Western philosophical tradition and an utterly original exploration of the timeless human virtues.
A phenomenal bestseller in its author's native France and now translated into twenty-three languages, 'A Short Treatise On The Great Virtues' takes as its starting point eighteen human virtues - ranging from politeness, prudence and humour to compassion, tolerance and love - to help us understand "what we should do, who we should be, and how we should live".
Comte-Sponville offers the reader both a thoughtful and accessible introduction to the history of Western ethics and an exploration of the ways in which the views and the claims of the great philosophers can apply - and fail to apply - to our lives and our moral choices and decisions today. In the process, we gain a remarkable new perspective on the value, the relevance, and even the charm of the Western ethical tradition.
