The Deepest Human Life
William James once defined philosophy as “the unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly.” But for many people philosophy seems more like the attempt to think in the most stubbornly unusual way possible. The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone is my attempt to bring philosophy down from its cloudy theorizing and put it back on the earth where it belongs, among wrestlers and chiropractors, preschool music teachers and undertakers, soldiers and moms, chefs and divorcees—you and me, in fact. It relates the stories and ideas of great philosophers (Socrates, Epicurus, Epictetus, al-Ghazali, Descartes, Kant, and others) to the lives of those struggling to live better. William James—one of my heroes, who saw his essential work as “popular philosophy”—also said, “The deepest human life is everywhere.”
Praise
“The Deepest Human Life is a splendid book for students, writers, philosophers, and anyone interested in exploring the human condition. Samuelson wears his considerable learning lightly, addressing the enduring questions—What is philosophy? What is happiness? What is the nature of good and evil?—in an engaging and accessible manner, reminding readers that the quest for meaning is indeed a matter of life and death. What a marvelous professor he must be. And what good luck to have his wisdom here on the page.”
—Christopher Merrill, author of The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War
