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Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
A NEW YORKER AND THE ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF 2022" Life Is Hard is a humane consolation for challenging times. Reading it is like speaking with a thoughtful friend who never tells you to cheer up, but, by offering gentle companionship and a change of perspective, makes you feel better anyway" The New York Times Book Review' An eloquent, moving, witty and above all useful demonstration of philosophy's power to help us weather the storms of being human ' Oliver Burkeman, author of FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS______________________________________Pain, Loneliness, Grief, Injustice ... Hope?Life is hard - as the past few years have made painfully clear. From personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world, sometimes simply going on can feel too much.But could there be solace - and even hope - in acknowledging the hardships of the human condition? Might doing so free us from the tyranny of striving for our "best lives" and help us find warmth, humanity, and humour in the lives we actually have? Could it inspire in us the desire for a better world?In this profound and personal book, Kieran Setiya shows how philosophy can help us find our way. He shares his own experience with chronic pain and the consolation that comes from making sense of it. He asks what we can learn from loneliness and loss about the value of human life. And he explores how we can fail with grace, confront injustice, and search for meaning in the face of despair. Drawing on ancient and modern philosophy, as well as fiction, comedy, social science and personal essay, Life is Hard is a book for this moment - a work of solace and compassion. It draws us towards justice, for ourselves and others, by acknowledging what it means to be alive.
234 pages, Hardcover
Published October 6, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 197 reviews
December 11, 2022
It was good to read a moral philosophy book that starts with the principle that being happy is not the same as living well. I have read a lot of moral philosophy books, and I find that too many of them overrate happiness and suggest that maximizing happiness should be our goal, that a person's level of happiness should be the measure of a good life. Happiness is great, but there is so much more. Learning, striving, accomplishment, feeling flow and adding to the diversity of my life experiences are all meaningful to me, but are at best indirectly related to happiness. Part of a good life is being good at doing something. Sometimes pursuing those goals can be frustrating, boring, or unsatisfying or can even make me angry, but I wouldn't give up the goals or the experience of pursuing them in exchange for more happiness. And then there is outright unhappiness, which comes from sad and tragic events, disease, failure and other setbacks in pursuing goals or from misbehavior (or perceived misbehavior) of others. Those are things that I'd never wish for, except that life would be incomplete without them. And since we experience the good by feeling its contrast with the bad, we could not appreciate our good times without having bad times for comparison.
Mr. Setiya doesn't discuss the parts of life that are difficult but rewarding or the value of the bad in helping us to appreciate the good. But he makes some other good points, discussing the importance of relationships and our human connections with other people, which are not always easy, but are essential to a full life. He understands that people are more important than abstractions. He also spends a lot of time discussing the importance of being of service to other people. It's not always enjoyable, but it has rewards for the doer and the recipient and for the larger community. There is also an extensive discussion of grief and how to respond to it. I'm generally in agreement with him on this. You shouldn't minimize it, ignore it or cherish it, but you have to accept it and let it run its course.
Somehow I wanted more from this book. Maybe some deeper philosophical analysis. Maybe a book less targeted at a broad audience. Maybe some more surprises in his analysis. I don't know. I may look at some of Mr. Setiya's academic writing since I do believe that he is thinking in the right direction and his writing for a scholarly audience might give me what I felt that I was missing here, though I usually find modern academic writing in philosophy to be needlessly dense and focused on things that I don't care about.
Mr. Setiya doesn't discuss the parts of life that are difficult but rewarding or the value of the bad in helping us to appreciate the good. But he makes some other good points, discussing the importance of relationships and our human connections with other people, which are not always easy, but are essential to a full life. He understands that people are more important than abstractions. He also spends a lot of time discussing the importance of being of service to other people. It's not always enjoyable, but it has rewards for the doer and the recipient and for the larger community. There is also an extensive discussion of grief and how to respond to it. I'm generally in agreement with him on this. You shouldn't minimize it, ignore it or cherish it, but you have to accept it and let it run its course.
Somehow I wanted more from this book. Maybe some deeper philosophical analysis. Maybe a book less targeted at a broad audience. Maybe some more surprises in his analysis. I don't know. I may look at some of Mr. Setiya's academic writing since I do believe that he is thinking in the right direction and his writing for a scholarly audience might give me what I felt that I was missing here, though I usually find modern academic writing in philosophy to be needlessly dense and focused on things that I don't care about.
March 13, 2024
This was a beautifully written book that everyone should have on their shelf. Admittedly, there were no earth shattering revelations or life altering epiphanies, but what it did offer was perspective and insight. Setiya skillfully gives you the information and context you need as he goes so you do not have to have a background in philosophy to understand and enjoy this book. The way he ties it all together is poetry and his humor adds levity to some deceptively deep and heavy topics. This book invites thought, compassion, reflection, and consideration, both for one's own life and the lives of those around us.
November 4, 2022
It always comes down to some form of "just deal w/it".. it seems to me :)
January 11, 2023
I liked the way the author presented subjects, looking at key challenges we face as individuals (pain, grief etc) and the work to try assess some of the philosophical foundations that have been used to guide people through, as well as personal experiences. However, I found that the author struggled to find a balance between talking about the philosophy underpinning what he was saying, his own experiences and trying to sum things up in a way to appeal to a reader. This made it difficult for me to latch on to the content in a way that felt particularly impactful.
I think this became most pronounced towards the end of the book where the author discusses some of the debate around the value of “hope”. The initial presentation was intriguing (is hope a useful concept) but I struggled to engage as the author moved towards contemporary discussions about climate change - namely because I didn’t get a good understanding of how he was connecting this to the wider philosophy he was talking about or providing additional depth and detail to explain how the philosophy could be used to influence real world action beyond a high level issue identification.
All in all, the book identifies a number of real challenges that are ripe for wider discussion about how we can prepare ourselves to face them, but it doesn't always hit the mark of giving me the discussion expected. There’s certainly value here, just difficult for me to define in a way that unlocked it for me.
I think this became most pronounced towards the end of the book where the author discusses some of the debate around the value of “hope”. The initial presentation was intriguing (is hope a useful concept) but I struggled to engage as the author moved towards contemporary discussions about climate change - namely because I didn’t get a good understanding of how he was connecting this to the wider philosophy he was talking about or providing additional depth and detail to explain how the philosophy could be used to influence real world action beyond a high level issue identification.
All in all, the book identifies a number of real challenges that are ripe for wider discussion about how we can prepare ourselves to face them, but it doesn't always hit the mark of giving me the discussion expected. There’s certainly value here, just difficult for me to define in a way that unlocked it for me.
September 15, 2023
"You remind me of someone who is looking through a closed window and cannot explain to himself the strange movements of a passerby. He doesn’t know what storm is raging out there or that this person might only with difficulty be keeping himself on his feet."
~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
I was in the mood to do some reading about mindset, so I bumped this one up in my "to-read" queue. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the writing here... It started off fairly innocuously enough, and then turned into an absolute shitshow as the book progressed. More below. This will be a long one, so get comfortable.
The book opens with the quote above.
Author Kieran Setiya is a Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Hull, UK. He is known for his work in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind.
Kieran Setiya:
The book opens with a decent intro. Unfortunately, this was probably the high water mark of the book. I am admittedly very particular about how engaging I find a book's prose, and this one missed the mark for me here. I was just not a fan of the author's writing style.
I have found that, broadly speaking; books on philosophy break into two disticnt categories. The first is where the author goes off on long-winded esoteric tangents, and manages to effectively lose the forest for the trees. The second is where the author tells the reader an interesting story, and accompanies this story with the relevant philosophical underpinnings. Sadly, this book was a good example of the former and not the latter.
Setiya drops this bit of writing, outlining what the book will cover:
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I was just not a fan of the presentation style of this one. The author tends to drone on in a somewhat monotonous fashion; which thoroughly bored me to tears. I found my attention wandering numerous times...
Sadly, the lackluster prose proved to be the least of this book's problems...
Alarm bells went off for me early on, as the author mentions climate change 4 times in the introduction alone. A search of the PDF version I have reveals that it appears in the book an incredible 29 times. Now, call me old-fashioned if you will, but I didn't pick up a book on philosophy to read moronic screechings about how the Earth is doomed and the sky is falling. But, just like an evangelical Christian who never shuts up about Jesus, these climate alarmists just can't help themselves.
There was also the inclusion of quite a lot of partisan jargon that liberally peppers the writing here. The author trots out the terms "equity," "disproportionate impact," "marginalized people," and other assorted mindless jargon typically employed by the ideologically possessed too many times to count. SIGH
This was downright ridiculous at times, no more so than when the author casually drops in the line that there is a "revival of fascism" taking place. Say what?? Where is fascism being revived? Who is reviving it? Are they in the room with you now?? Nonsense like this makes me wonder if these people even understand what fascism actually is/was. SPOILER: It's not stuff you don't like, or even the dreaded Evil Orange Man™ ...
I just about laughed out loud when Setiya quotes Karl Marx numerous times, as well as race-grifter Ta-Nehisi Coates. There is also a bit of writing waxing poetic on The Frankfurt School's Neo-Marxist "Critical Theory."
And although he never comes right out and says it here, I would bet that the author is actually a communist. It's becoming very fashionable for those in the academic and media class to align themselves as "fellow travelers." "Useful idiots" might be a better term... That this person can cite Karl Marx, Angela Davis, The Frankfurt School, BLM and other openly Marxist prescriptions while warning the reader about fascism reemerging has got to be at the peak of irony.
The commie propaganda keeps coming as the book proceeds, seemingly accelerating towards the end. He tells the reader how terrible white people are; going off on many NPC-level victimology diatribes. There's an entire chapter about how climate change will doom us all, and how capitalism is an evil system.
He drops this bit of low-resolution writing about how America is a racist country:
~ Conspicuously missing from this comparison is the fact that Asian men somehow manage to outperform native European whites in income earned, in this supposedly rigged "white supremacist" society.
FWIW; white Americans are nowhere near the top of the high-income earners by race:
Given that I had to listen to the short-sighted ramblings and prescriptions of this moron for the duration of the book, I feel like I should offer my own advice to him; in kind. Perhaps he should go and live in one of the socialist paradises that he waxes so nostalgically about here. Or, failing that - maybe he should pick up a few books on recent history and see that, despite being implemented in dozens of countries across many different cultures and times, socialism has never worked anywhere. Ever. Everyone becomes equal, alright. Equally poor and miserable.
And I'm sorry if I went off on my own little rant here, but it strikes me as the absolute pinnacle of irony that privileged people like the author can paradoxically enjoy all the fruits that a market economy provides to their lives, while simultaneously advocating for the most destructive political ideology that the world has ever known. 100 million dead in 100 years is a rough figure that is likely underestimated. Death is a preferable alternative to Communism.
This idiocy needs to be pushed back against wherever it pops up, to ensure people learn from the mistakes of the past. And if killing 100 million of your own people in the pursuit of an impossible utopia is not a mistake, then I don't know what is...
Which comes around to the central point here: Why tf this partisan preaching was even added to a book of this nature in the first place? I have read literally dozens of books in this genre, and don't remember any of the authors of those books going off on ranty emotional tears full of political jargon and rhetoric. That kind of shit has no business in a book like this.
********************
I did not like Life Is Hard. Most of the writing here is not much more than the ramblings of a garden-variety ideologically-possessed evangelical partisan. All the fancy words and pontification presented here; pure sophistry.
That the author is helping shape young impressionable minds at a highly accredited institution of higher learning honestly scares the shit out of me...
Remind me to take a hard pass on anything else he produces.
1 star, and off to the return bin.
~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
I was in the mood to do some reading about mindset, so I bumped this one up in my "to-read" queue. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the writing here... It started off fairly innocuously enough, and then turned into an absolute shitshow as the book progressed. More below. This will be a long one, so get comfortable.
The book opens with the quote above.
Author Kieran Setiya is a Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Hull, UK. He is known for his work in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind.
Kieran Setiya:
The book opens with a decent intro. Unfortunately, this was probably the high water mark of the book. I am admittedly very particular about how engaging I find a book's prose, and this one missed the mark for me here. I was just not a fan of the author's writing style.
I have found that, broadly speaking; books on philosophy break into two disticnt categories. The first is where the author goes off on long-winded esoteric tangents, and manages to effectively lose the forest for the trees. The second is where the author tells the reader an interesting story, and accompanies this story with the relevant philosophical underpinnings. Sadly, this book was a good example of the former and not the latter.
Setiya drops this bit of writing, outlining what the book will cover:
"Philosophy cannot promise happiness or an ideal life, but it can help to lift the weight of human suffering. We’ll begin with the frailties of the body, make our way through love and loss to the structure of society, and end with “the whole residual cosmos.” Spoiler alert: if you want to know the meaning of life, the answer’s in Chapter 6."
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I was just not a fan of the presentation style of this one. The author tends to drone on in a somewhat monotonous fashion; which thoroughly bored me to tears. I found my attention wandering numerous times...
Sadly, the lackluster prose proved to be the least of this book's problems...
Alarm bells went off for me early on, as the author mentions climate change 4 times in the introduction alone. A search of the PDF version I have reveals that it appears in the book an incredible 29 times. Now, call me old-fashioned if you will, but I didn't pick up a book on philosophy to read moronic screechings about how the Earth is doomed and the sky is falling. But, just like an evangelical Christian who never shuts up about Jesus, these climate alarmists just can't help themselves.
There was also the inclusion of quite a lot of partisan jargon that liberally peppers the writing here. The author trots out the terms "equity," "disproportionate impact," "marginalized people," and other assorted mindless jargon typically employed by the ideologically possessed too many times to count. SIGH
This was downright ridiculous at times, no more so than when the author casually drops in the line that there is a "revival of fascism" taking place. Say what?? Where is fascism being revived? Who is reviving it? Are they in the room with you now?? Nonsense like this makes me wonder if these people even understand what fascism actually is/was. SPOILER: It's not stuff you don't like, or even the dreaded Evil Orange Man™ ...
I just about laughed out loud when Setiya quotes Karl Marx numerous times, as well as race-grifter Ta-Nehisi Coates. There is also a bit of writing waxing poetic on The Frankfurt School's Neo-Marxist "Critical Theory."
And although he never comes right out and says it here, I would bet that the author is actually a communist. It's becoming very fashionable for those in the academic and media class to align themselves as "fellow travelers." "Useful idiots" might be a better term... That this person can cite Karl Marx, Angela Davis, The Frankfurt School, BLM and other openly Marxist prescriptions while warning the reader about fascism reemerging has got to be at the peak of irony.
The commie propaganda keeps coming as the book proceeds, seemingly accelerating towards the end. He tells the reader how terrible white people are; going off on many NPC-level victimology diatribes. There's an entire chapter about how climate change will doom us all, and how capitalism is an evil system.
He drops this bit of low-resolution writing about how America is a racist country:
"...Americans benefit from a history of colonial expropriation and slavery that in part explains the huge disparity in median wealth between White families (a median of roughly $188,000) and Black ones (around $24,000)."
~ Conspicuously missing from this comparison is the fact that Asian men somehow manage to outperform native European whites in income earned, in this supposedly rigged "white supremacist" society.
FWIW; white Americans are nowhere near the top of the high-income earners by race:
Given that I had to listen to the short-sighted ramblings and prescriptions of this moron for the duration of the book, I feel like I should offer my own advice to him; in kind. Perhaps he should go and live in one of the socialist paradises that he waxes so nostalgically about here. Or, failing that - maybe he should pick up a few books on recent history and see that, despite being implemented in dozens of countries across many different cultures and times, socialism has never worked anywhere. Ever. Everyone becomes equal, alright. Equally poor and miserable.
And I'm sorry if I went off on my own little rant here, but it strikes me as the absolute pinnacle of irony that privileged people like the author can paradoxically enjoy all the fruits that a market economy provides to their lives, while simultaneously advocating for the most destructive political ideology that the world has ever known. 100 million dead in 100 years is a rough figure that is likely underestimated. Death is a preferable alternative to Communism.
This idiocy needs to be pushed back against wherever it pops up, to ensure people learn from the mistakes of the past. And if killing 100 million of your own people in the pursuit of an impossible utopia is not a mistake, then I don't know what is...
Which comes around to the central point here: Why tf this partisan preaching was even added to a book of this nature in the first place? I have read literally dozens of books in this genre, and don't remember any of the authors of those books going off on ranty emotional tears full of political jargon and rhetoric. That kind of shit has no business in a book like this.
********************
I did not like Life Is Hard. Most of the writing here is not much more than the ramblings of a garden-variety ideologically-possessed evangelical partisan. All the fancy words and pontification presented here; pure sophistry.
That the author is helping shape young impressionable minds at a highly accredited institution of higher learning honestly scares the shit out of me...
Remind me to take a hard pass on anything else he produces.
1 star, and off to the return bin.
November 9, 2022
Setiya is worth reading if you happen to be a human being. His newest book Life is Hard reflects on some of the different ways life can be… well.. hard. Setiya reflects on illness and disability, loneliness, grief, injustice, absurdity, and, strikingly, hope. And as he’s reflecting on these rough patches in human existence, he points out ways that philosophy could help us a bit when life is hard in that particular way. His earlier book Midlife was in roughly the same vein, but focused on the midlife crisis and its near neighbors. Both books are very well-written and sensible.
These two books are part of a broader shift happening within contemporary analytic philosophy. Analytic philosophers have been writing more books like this in the past ten years than they did in the decades before.
I love analytic philosophy—even the wildly esoteric and technical parts. But there have been a few really powerful pieces of writing about the human condition in an analytic style for a long time now. The essays in Thomas Nagel’s Mortal Questions are the classic reference points. And it always seemed like we could maybe do more of that. People often criticized the analytic approach for avoiding exactly the topics that people care about most. And I understand that, at some point, analytic philsophy’s self-conception(s) barred it from really having anything helpful to say about the things that matter most in life. But those limiting self-conceptions are largely relics at this point. The field is not all language games now and hasn’t been for over fifty years.
So, from my perspective, this new movement is a good thing. Maybe even a great one. This is a movement without a manifesto—but the books I’m thinking of have some things in common. First, the authors are reflecting on problems and questions grounded in everyday life or the human condition. And the questions are not only ethical. They might talk about some ethical theories and dilemmas. But they also ask things like —‘what makes life worth living’, ‘what’s the best we can hope for’, ‘does anything matter if I, we, the universe are all annihilated in the end.’ And so on. Second, they talk about these things in something like the analytic spirit. They largely use plain language, clearly state their claims and arguments, make helpful distinctions, explain the terms that they introduce as best they can, and generally strive to be as lucid as possible. Third, they also try to write in a style that is accessible to the general public and not just other analytic philosophers. And so the books often have many illustrative examples, sometimes autobiographical and sometimes from history and literature or film. This is probably the main thing that separates these books from academic articles or monographs that deal with the same topics.
So is there a name for this genre and the movement it belongs to? Not that I’m aware of. The area of study belongs to value theory, but there is no concise name for this particular part of it. I’m going to call it ‘analytic existentialism’ for now. Analytic because the language used is clear and the authors usually have a background in that tradition; existentialism because the questions and topics are roughly the sort of things that we associate with the figures whose names are often thrown under that vague banner. The other option I see is ‘analytic self-help’. And that’s okay, but would only cover part of the genre I’m trying to pick out. Some of these books are more about offering an opportunity to reflect on the human condition than offering us any help.
But Setiya explicitly sets out to show us how philosophy can help us: ‘There is no cure for the human condition. But after twenty years teaching and studying moral philosophy, I believe that it can help. This book explains how.’ And maybe it can. Setiya and I have our differences on a few of the topics he covers. But I enjoyed hearing him out even when I disagreed most. Thinking hard about life is one of the few tools we have to help make our way through it. I hope there’s more to come.
(If this sort of book interests you, I highly recommend a few others—
Iddo Landau’s Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
Susan Wolf’s Meaning in Life
Thomas Hurka’s The Best Things in Life)
These two books are part of a broader shift happening within contemporary analytic philosophy. Analytic philosophers have been writing more books like this in the past ten years than they did in the decades before.
I love analytic philosophy—even the wildly esoteric and technical parts. But there have been a few really powerful pieces of writing about the human condition in an analytic style for a long time now. The essays in Thomas Nagel’s Mortal Questions are the classic reference points. And it always seemed like we could maybe do more of that. People often criticized the analytic approach for avoiding exactly the topics that people care about most. And I understand that, at some point, analytic philsophy’s self-conception(s) barred it from really having anything helpful to say about the things that matter most in life. But those limiting self-conceptions are largely relics at this point. The field is not all language games now and hasn’t been for over fifty years.
So, from my perspective, this new movement is a good thing. Maybe even a great one. This is a movement without a manifesto—but the books I’m thinking of have some things in common. First, the authors are reflecting on problems and questions grounded in everyday life or the human condition. And the questions are not only ethical. They might talk about some ethical theories and dilemmas. But they also ask things like —‘what makes life worth living’, ‘what’s the best we can hope for’, ‘does anything matter if I, we, the universe are all annihilated in the end.’ And so on. Second, they talk about these things in something like the analytic spirit. They largely use plain language, clearly state their claims and arguments, make helpful distinctions, explain the terms that they introduce as best they can, and generally strive to be as lucid as possible. Third, they also try to write in a style that is accessible to the general public and not just other analytic philosophers. And so the books often have many illustrative examples, sometimes autobiographical and sometimes from history and literature or film. This is probably the main thing that separates these books from academic articles or monographs that deal with the same topics.
So is there a name for this genre and the movement it belongs to? Not that I’m aware of. The area of study belongs to value theory, but there is no concise name for this particular part of it. I’m going to call it ‘analytic existentialism’ for now. Analytic because the language used is clear and the authors usually have a background in that tradition; existentialism because the questions and topics are roughly the sort of things that we associate with the figures whose names are often thrown under that vague banner. The other option I see is ‘analytic self-help’. And that’s okay, but would only cover part of the genre I’m trying to pick out. Some of these books are more about offering an opportunity to reflect on the human condition than offering us any help.
But Setiya explicitly sets out to show us how philosophy can help us: ‘There is no cure for the human condition. But after twenty years teaching and studying moral philosophy, I believe that it can help. This book explains how.’ And maybe it can. Setiya and I have our differences on a few of the topics he covers. But I enjoyed hearing him out even when I disagreed most. Thinking hard about life is one of the few tools we have to help make our way through it. I hope there’s more to come.
(If this sort of book interests you, I highly recommend a few others—
Iddo Landau’s Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
Susan Wolf’s Meaning in Life
Thomas Hurka’s The Best Things in Life)
June 12, 2023
It seems to me impossible to write about the human condition without a solid foundation in science, mathematics, and technology. Mr. Setiya, a professor of philosophy at MIT, has a warm and approachable persona and some new ideas in support of the unsurprising thesis that life is hard, but falls back, for the most part, on recounting the great philosophers of history and the thought experiments that they applied, ignorant of science as they were. Alain de Botton, in contrast, has brought philosophy up to date and used it, in The School of Life, to help us to live and feel better.
Why does MIT, one of the world's greatest institutions of science, mathematics, and engineering, even teach philosophy?
The Welcome to the MIT Philosophy Undergraduate Program on the MIT website posits that:
Why does MIT, one of the world's greatest institutions of science, mathematics, and engineering, even teach philosophy?
The Welcome to the MIT Philosophy Undergraduate Program on the MIT website posits that:
Over the last 2,500 years, philosophy has transformed physics, biology, logic and mathematics, economics, politics, linguistics, psychology, religion, culture, and our understanding of how we should live.The transformation worked mostly in the opposite direction.
January 24, 2023
There's some wisdom in "Life Is Hard," maybe some balm for souls rubbed raw by the travails and tragedies of life, Setiya's take on the meaning of life, even a proverbial (if light) kick in the butt to get out there and do something. Anything.
There are also a lot of words for the sake of words, and philosophizing for the sake of philosophizing. The author ventures into thoughts, but all thoughts are not created equal. A lot of these particular ones could have been summarized by the profound "shit happens, shit is, go along to get along, except when it's just too much, then do something about it. Repeat, and then you die"
Admittedly, the author got through to me on a number of occasions, and I'm a pretty tough sell on purely philosophical works. Besides, it was an interesting read - even if, at my own end, I doubt that Setiya's philosophizing will have contributed much to me finding my way.
But who knows, maybe this is just the tea to soothe your insides, scald your tongue, or, perchance both?
There are also a lot of words for the sake of words, and philosophizing for the sake of philosophizing. The author ventures into thoughts, but all thoughts are not created equal. A lot of these particular ones could have been summarized by the profound "shit happens, shit is, go along to get along, except when it's just too much, then do something about it. Repeat, and then you die"
Admittedly, the author got through to me on a number of occasions, and I'm a pretty tough sell on purely philosophical works. Besides, it was an interesting read - even if, at my own end, I doubt that Setiya's philosophizing will have contributed much to me finding my way.
But who knows, maybe this is just the tea to soothe your insides, scald your tongue, or, perchance both?
November 6, 2022
An interesting journey through the trials and tribulations of life with a thoughtful philosopher as your guide. Though I didn't always agree with the guide's perspectives, they were always interesting. This was especially so of the last chapter, on hope. Worth reading.
January 9, 2024
En helt ok bok som iaf rör sig bort från den trötta självhjälpstrenden. Men tycker den var rörigt skriven och likt Martin Hägglunds bok (som dock håller högre kvalitet) känns det som om syftet med boken (att visa hur filosofi kan hjälpa i ett tufft liv) snarare är ett svepskäl för politisk kommentering. På så sätt vet man inte riktigt hur man ska placera boken.
March 9, 2023
About 3 to 3.5 stars.
I think this is worth reading, because it's honest and consoling in many parts, and raises interesting philosophical questions. But a lot of the time when I wanted him to delve deeper, he stopped just short of it. My main takeaway is the same as this LARB review:
I think this is worth reading, because it's honest and consoling in many parts, and raises interesting philosophical questions. But a lot of the time when I wanted him to delve deeper, he stopped just short of it. My main takeaway is the same as this LARB review:
I didn’t find that Life is Hard helped quite as much as I’d hoped, though, with my own existential angst. The issue, for me, is mainly one of style. Setiya claims in his introduction that he wants to “draw on everything [he’s got],” in a way that makes philosophy “continuous with literature, history, memoir, film.” He does use examples from each of these genres and art forms throughout, but the writing itself is squarely in the mode of mainstream public philosophy. The tone is companionable and sincere, the prose simple and direct. Setiya is clearly concerned with not overtaxing or boring his readers, meaning that he moves relatively quickly through his material and doesn’t dwell on objections to his points. Autobiographical narrative or cultural anecdote often introduces a subject, but cedes swiftly to theory. Setiya is such a brilliant philosopher, skillful writer, and sensitive person that in several places I feel he is holding back his full self, in service to what he imagines a popular audience wants.
Shelved as 'tr-again'
January 3, 2023First, this book is much better than its title or chapter headings. The book may not be for everyone, but for those like me who think they have more yesterdays than tomorrows, this has much to offer. In the past couple of years, I have noticed that many of the tools or crutches that I have used to motivate myself or navigate life just do not work anymore as well, not that life is deteriorating or bad, but just that some of the underlying assumptions or guideposts about the future are not the same. While I might sound like I am introducing a self-help book and in some ways, it may be so, it is quite different from the most on offer.
The book is broken down into topics such as failure, grief, absurdity, hope, and a couple more. In each, the author offers a couple of perspectives drawing from literature, philosophy, and other fields. His sources tend to be narrow and he focuses on only a few aspects, but they are powerful and not so obvious, at least for me. For example, in the topic on failure, he questions if there is any reason life has to be a story for it to be meaningful and speaks of telic activities (the ones that work towards an endpoint) and atelic activities (ones that do not). He tends to make a case of why individual life requires us to connect with others and address injustice, even without using arguments driven by morality. I was not fully convinced of some of them, but this book is a rich read nonetheless, one that I might return to.
The book is broken down into topics such as failure, grief, absurdity, hope, and a couple more. In each, the author offers a couple of perspectives drawing from literature, philosophy, and other fields. His sources tend to be narrow and he focuses on only a few aspects, but they are powerful and not so obvious, at least for me. For example, in the topic on failure, he questions if there is any reason life has to be a story for it to be meaningful and speaks of telic activities (the ones that work towards an endpoint) and atelic activities (ones that do not). He tends to make a case of why individual life requires us to connect with others and address injustice, even without using arguments driven by morality. I was not fully convinced of some of them, but this book is a rich read nonetheless, one that I might return to.
October 16, 2022
Antidote to toxic positivity, yet not an all-out depressing take on life. The author shared about his personal pain (physical and otherwise), and brings an “authentic” steady and real perspective about how life can be hard, but also fascinating, purposeful, and many other things.
April 23, 2024
The chapters in the book, “loneliness, grief, justice, etc” all share one major theme. Progress in life’s challenges are accomplished by action. We can all experience loss, fear, and unjust actions, but the only way to overcome them is by taking the appropriate steps against them.
I disagree with the authors interpretation of stoicism, especially since the Stoics teach that we should only pay attention to what we can control. Something the author seems to agree with. Stoicism is not about inaction, it’s about taking ownership over what life throws at you.
I agree, life is hard. Life used to be a lot harder though. We have advanced as a civilization to solve many points of friction unimaginable to our ancestors. The future is not as bleak as the author prescribes. We have a long way to go, but action will get us there. As mentioned in the book, hope is not blind faith, it is a way to move forward.
I disagree with the authors interpretation of stoicism, especially since the Stoics teach that we should only pay attention to what we can control. Something the author seems to agree with. Stoicism is not about inaction, it’s about taking ownership over what life throws at you.
I agree, life is hard. Life used to be a lot harder though. We have advanced as a civilization to solve many points of friction unimaginable to our ancestors. The future is not as bleak as the author prescribes. We have a long way to go, but action will get us there. As mentioned in the book, hope is not blind faith, it is a way to move forward.
December 31, 2022
I had higher hopes for this book than the book delivered. It was an interesting read but it frankly wasn't deep enough.
I did enjoy the discussion of telic versus atelic thinking and have definitely applied some of that into my thinking.
I did enjoy the discussion of telic versus atelic thinking and have definitely applied some of that into my thinking.
November 15, 2022
To quote the title, life is hard, and Kieran Setiya tackles the subject of living philosophically with ferocious interrogations into the meaning of existence. He recommends a guide to human satisfaction: enjoy living well, as opposed to chasing ideal happiness or attaining perfection. Exploring universal questions through famous works of literature and personal imprints of being, Setiya examines how we can endure adversity by setting new expectations for our inner ambitions.
In analyzing the philosophical topics expounded upon in this book, I was dissatisfied with the results. Setiya seems to be advocating for settling, going quietly about our lives without dreaming, without wanting something better than a life considered to be good enough. He asks that we be satisfied with decency, as opposed to striving for happiness or perfection. While attempting to work through these conundrums, he cites the work of philosophers and writers such as Aristotle, Virginia Woolf, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. He argues with all of them, and does not budge on his own opinions of their work, stating them as fact. He consistently uses generalization, and offers a bleak vision of the world that is crowded with adversity and absurdity. The most difficult part of the book is the language, which often contradicts itself, and is not accessibly written for the average reader. Setiya is at his most eloquent when meditating upon grief, but fails to truly capture the heart of human consciousness as a whole. Instead of accepting our lot as he suggests, we must allow ourselves to dream of a better future.
In analyzing the philosophical topics expounded upon in this book, I was dissatisfied with the results. Setiya seems to be advocating for settling, going quietly about our lives without dreaming, without wanting something better than a life considered to be good enough. He asks that we be satisfied with decency, as opposed to striving for happiness or perfection. While attempting to work through these conundrums, he cites the work of philosophers and writers such as Aristotle, Virginia Woolf, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. He argues with all of them, and does not budge on his own opinions of their work, stating them as fact. He consistently uses generalization, and offers a bleak vision of the world that is crowded with adversity and absurdity. The most difficult part of the book is the language, which often contradicts itself, and is not accessibly written for the average reader. Setiya is at his most eloquent when meditating upon grief, but fails to truly capture the heart of human consciousness as a whole. Instead of accepting our lot as he suggests, we must allow ourselves to dream of a better future.
June 30, 2023
It’s fine. There’s some interesting ideas. I’m sure as a course or lecture this would’ve been better. And maybe it’s the fact that I’ve discovered that caffeine pills are a thing, and I don’t think my heart rate has dropped below 120 for the last few weeks, but I find myself incredibly impatient with this book spending way too much time talking about things that didn’t seem to drive it forward.
Reading philosophy is such a treat when you can understand it. But reading people discuss reading philosophy is it’s own special circle of hell. Some thing to bear in mind, I guess.
In an ideal world, I get all of my modern philosophy from strange hermits residing in the woods, whatever odd man cave/faraday cage Jaron Lanier lives in, or from beautiful women who reside in ponds distributing political science philosophy, as well as swords
Reading philosophy is such a treat when you can understand it. But reading people discuss reading philosophy is it’s own special circle of hell. Some thing to bear in mind, I guess.
In an ideal world, I get all of my modern philosophy from strange hermits residing in the woods, whatever odd man cave/faraday cage Jaron Lanier lives in, or from beautiful women who reside in ponds distributing political science philosophy, as well as swords
November 23, 2022
Philosophy lite (very light, disappointingly). I'm not sure whether we ever get to what the subtitle intimates (more attentive readers: do we?), but then I got a little lost in the author's strangely didactic section on Adorno. Setiya seems disappointed with Adorno's skepticism of academics channeling their energies into activism rather than scholarship. I was intrigued -- and was hoping for a more charitable (and in-depth) treatment of Adorno's position, not a scolding. Unfortunately, I will have to look for that somewhere else.
November 3, 2022
I enjoyed this book. Basically the thought is that life is not always going to be perfect and well but it’s easier to navigate if we accept that fact.
I really enjoyed the author’s negative viewpoint on viewing your own life and other peoples’ lives as a linear narrative culminating at some point in the future. Instead of valuing the end result, value the journey through life. Maybe that is why I enjoy exercising so much. Sure, I kind of have goals, but the main joy for me is the everyday day, the journey.
This book makes no attempt to sugar coat life. Once we accept the fact that we and others will always have troubles life will become more bearable and enjoyable.
I really enjoyed the author’s negative viewpoint on viewing your own life and other peoples’ lives as a linear narrative culminating at some point in the future. Instead of valuing the end result, value the journey through life. Maybe that is why I enjoy exercising so much. Sure, I kind of have goals, but the main joy for me is the everyday day, the journey.
This book makes no attempt to sugar coat life. Once we accept the fact that we and others will always have troubles life will become more bearable and enjoyable.
January 19, 2023
I liked this book. Life is hard and Setiya, who personally suffers from chronic, debilitating pain knows this all too well. He mines the work of philosophers, novelists, and other thinkers to look for answers to existential questions like “How do I lead a meaningful life” and “What is the meaning of life?”. I found the chapter on Failure most instructive. Using the term “failure” for a person only began in the 1800’s with the pressures of upward mobility. Ultimately, we need to find good, meaningful work, cultivate relationships, and enjoy nature, art, and music to lead a good life. No real surprises here, but a reminder to be gentle with ourselves and others.
October 24, 2022
I absolutely loved this book. I was unfamiliar with Kieran Setiya’s work, but I instantly become a fan. Kieran is a philosopher, and this book discusses a wide range of challenges we all face in our lives. It discusses relationships, our emotions, death, climate change and so much more. But, what’s great about this book is how many questions Kieran has us readers ask ourselves as we read, which is what great philosophy books are all about. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait to check out more of Kieran’s work.
July 2, 2023
Life Is Hard takes on the topics of pain, loneliness, grief, failure, absurdity, and hope. I think the book can be summed up nicely with the quote:
Even though suffering is inevitable, it doesn’t have to keep you from living well.
At times, engaging with these topics was hard for me. I think I shy away from even wanting to feel these deep emotions. I'm writing this right after finishing the book and I don't feel that strong happy-ending that I'd expected. More of a sobering realism. That's probably what Setiya intended, anyway.
Even though suffering is inevitable, it doesn’t have to keep you from living well.
At times, engaging with these topics was hard for me. I think I shy away from even wanting to feel these deep emotions. I'm writing this right after finishing the book and I don't feel that strong happy-ending that I'd expected. More of a sobering realism. That's probably what Setiya intended, anyway.
August 14, 2023
I read this book about a year ago when it first came out and loved it. For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been taking care of our older cat, and things aren’t looking too good. Books are often where I turn to better understand things, and I remembered this amazing book. Philosophy makes us think and look at situations in ways we may have never considered. This book covers a variety of topics on the hard things we all face as part of the human condition, and I highly recommend it.
August 12, 2023
This will be one to return to time and time again. Sometimes it was a little bogged in the philosophical theory but with a professor of Philosophy for the author, it isn’t surprising. I truly feel that the author has a good mindset for the ups and downs of life and I gained some important perspectives. Great for additional reading material recs, and journaling.
May 11, 2023
Contrary to its title, the book felt like an easy read. Just like the description, it deals with hard stuff. I enjoyed the collection of thoughts and sayings, as I appreciate the work of those who translate their literary findings into practical, everyday issues. As a philosophy enthusiast and illiterate, the gathering of realisations by thought provoking humans, with interesting and relatable interpretations, is something I deeply appreciate. Maybe because one of the goals here is to use reason and logic to try to explain feelings and emotions, I underlined a lot of sentences and full paragraphs in this book. And I felt somehow reassured, since the different aches that comprise each chapter are universal.
It is a negative book, so the title is not misleading. I found myself going through the chapters, Infirmity, Loneliness, Grief, enjoying what I was reading but anxious to arrive at Hope, the final one. Turns out that what I thought (and hoped) was the only non-negative chapter or ache, was just as painful as the ones before.
Just now thinking about the obviousness of it all, Mr. Setiya's approach to life, in this specific book, is to say that it IS hard, but that's ok. Since we as a species share so many thoughts and difficulties, our very specific anguishes have been felt by many people for a long time, in one way or another. Knowing this helps when we go through the different chapters of this book and of life, creating a bond with people that wrote and thought about emotions and feelings 2500 years ago. If it can feel like a literary pat on the back, it also helps our sense of belonging. Maybe it's already written (maybe it's this exact book), but I eagerly await the sequel, Life is Good: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way.
It is a negative book, so the title is not misleading. I found myself going through the chapters, Infirmity, Loneliness, Grief, enjoying what I was reading but anxious to arrive at Hope, the final one. Turns out that what I thought (and hoped) was the only non-negative chapter or ache, was just as painful as the ones before.
Just now thinking about the obviousness of it all, Mr. Setiya's approach to life, in this specific book, is to say that it IS hard, but that's ok. Since we as a species share so many thoughts and difficulties, our very specific anguishes have been felt by many people for a long time, in one way or another. Knowing this helps when we go through the different chapters of this book and of life, creating a bond with people that wrote and thought about emotions and feelings 2500 years ago. If it can feel like a literary pat on the back, it also helps our sense of belonging. Maybe it's already written (maybe it's this exact book), but I eagerly await the sequel, Life is Good: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way.
November 25, 2023
If you browse through any bookstore, in any country on earth, it is very likely that among the best sellers, there's a bunch of self-help literature. Unfortunately, 99% of the self-help industry is composed of trite, individualistic platitudes about living "your best life" and/or how to get rich.
It's a sad state of affairs, considering that Philosophy IS the original self-help genre. Why not? People since time immemorial have searched for guidance on how to live their lives; just look at the ancient Greeks.
The (academic) philosophy establishment these days, however, has been mostly reduced to an aristocracy that writes (badly) about esoteric topics that nobody outside campuses cares about.
This is why it was so refreshing to read "Life is Hard"; the author is aware of the weaknesses of his colleagues. He's written an accessible, pleasant-to-read text, with very little academic jargon that goes over some of philosophy's core topics like grief, pain, and justice.
I find its alternative title much more fitting: "A philosophical guide to facing life's inevitable hardships". This is the second way in which this book is refreshing. It is not about how to live the best life possible (which is impossible for most people, given the amount of suffering and injustice in the world) but rather on answering the question: what is a life well-lived?
My favorite chapter is the first which is about Pain. The author gives his very personal account of living with chronic pain for years and it is the best text I've ever read on the matter, which prompted me to buy the book. Granted, other chapters are not as good but it's still an excellent read, given its ambitious goal of making philosophy more accessible. As such, it can't get too deep into any topic but there's a thick bibliography section waiting at the end, for those interested.
I can see myself re-reading this in the future. I recommend this to anyone who has ever been curious about philosophy but felt intimidated by it.
It's a sad state of affairs, considering that Philosophy IS the original self-help genre. Why not? People since time immemorial have searched for guidance on how to live their lives; just look at the ancient Greeks.
The (academic) philosophy establishment these days, however, has been mostly reduced to an aristocracy that writes (badly) about esoteric topics that nobody outside campuses cares about.
This is why it was so refreshing to read "Life is Hard"; the author is aware of the weaknesses of his colleagues. He's written an accessible, pleasant-to-read text, with very little academic jargon that goes over some of philosophy's core topics like grief, pain, and justice.
I find its alternative title much more fitting: "A philosophical guide to facing life's inevitable hardships". This is the second way in which this book is refreshing. It is not about how to live the best life possible (which is impossible for most people, given the amount of suffering and injustice in the world) but rather on answering the question: what is a life well-lived?
My favorite chapter is the first which is about Pain. The author gives his very personal account of living with chronic pain for years and it is the best text I've ever read on the matter, which prompted me to buy the book. Granted, other chapters are not as good but it's still an excellent read, given its ambitious goal of making philosophy more accessible. As such, it can't get too deep into any topic but there's a thick bibliography section waiting at the end, for those interested.
I can see myself re-reading this in the future. I recommend this to anyone who has ever been curious about philosophy but felt intimidated by it.
July 19, 2023
A vida não é fácil, com certeza é dura, complicada e complexa, mas também é o melhor presente da humanidade. É lindona cheio de amor, a oportunidade que temos de aproveitar e desfrutar até acabar.
Que nem tudo é cor de rosa? É verdade, mas também não é uma via-sacra eterna nem um perene caminho através dos tempos difíceis.
Este livro muito filosófico cheio de noções que ajudam a compreender as diferentes emoções e sensações que um indivíduo pode sentir e que, por sua vez, o levam a pensar que a vida realmente não é fácil.
De forma bastante didática, este livro traz muitas informações sobre tudo o que precisamos saber sobre temas como a solidão e sua origem em 1800, os diferentes tipos de luto, a desesperança e seu estado de ansiedade, dor e doença. Outra coisa notável sobre este livro é a ferramenta incrível que ele se torna quando você o tem na suas mãos, lendo e decifrando todo o conhecimento que o autor derrama nessas páginas.
Um livro muito agradável e divertido na hora da leitura ele se lê muito rápido. Um livro que por ser de conteúdo filosófico não é para nada chato.
O livro também é rico em referências históricas, literárias e cinematográficas, o que o torna ainda mais interessante. E, claro, fiquei encantado com o reconhecimento de grandes mulheres como Iris Murdoch, Virginia Wolf, Angela Davies e muitas outras.
Que nem tudo é cor de rosa? É verdade, mas também não é uma via-sacra eterna nem um perene caminho através dos tempos difíceis.
Este livro muito filosófico cheio de noções que ajudam a compreender as diferentes emoções e sensações que um indivíduo pode sentir e que, por sua vez, o levam a pensar que a vida realmente não é fácil.
De forma bastante didática, este livro traz muitas informações sobre tudo o que precisamos saber sobre temas como a solidão e sua origem em 1800, os diferentes tipos de luto, a desesperança e seu estado de ansiedade, dor e doença. Outra coisa notável sobre este livro é a ferramenta incrível que ele se torna quando você o tem na suas mãos, lendo e decifrando todo o conhecimento que o autor derrama nessas páginas.
Um livro muito agradável e divertido na hora da leitura ele se lê muito rápido. Um livro que por ser de conteúdo filosófico não é para nada chato.
O livro também é rico em referências históricas, literárias e cinematográficas, o que o torna ainda mais interessante. E, claro, fiquei encantado com o reconhecimento de grandes mulheres como Iris Murdoch, Virginia Wolf, Angela Davies e muitas outras.
October 12, 2022
Thank you @riverheadbooks and Kieran Sethiya for the advanced copy of LIFE IS HARD: HOW PHILOSOPHY CAN HELP US FIND OUR WAY!
Thoughts 💭: This was an unexpected but a compelling read. In this compelling philosophical guide, as it’s been called, Seitya’s belief of how philosophy can become a tool we can use to navigate through personal trauma to social injustice in this world. Sethiya draws on ancient and mordern philosophy using social media and literary examples as well as stories from his own experiences to help his readers rethink how we use or think of philosophy in our lives. I also thought this book helped us to further think of how fate, spirituality, and religion often dictate our lives.
This book is warm, accessible, and is a timely contribution in these challenging times. This is especially true as we are still reeling from the pandemic. Just yesterday, I was peer reviewing an article on how students can use visual arts to cope with the social injustice in this world mix and that article ties so beautifully with Sethiya’s book!
Thoughts 💭: This was an unexpected but a compelling read. In this compelling philosophical guide, as it’s been called, Seitya’s belief of how philosophy can become a tool we can use to navigate through personal trauma to social injustice in this world. Sethiya draws on ancient and mordern philosophy using social media and literary examples as well as stories from his own experiences to help his readers rethink how we use or think of philosophy in our lives. I also thought this book helped us to further think of how fate, spirituality, and religion often dictate our lives.
This book is warm, accessible, and is a timely contribution in these challenging times. This is especially true as we are still reeling from the pandemic. Just yesterday, I was peer reviewing an article on how students can use visual arts to cope with the social injustice in this world mix and that article ties so beautifully with Sethiya’s book!
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March 3, 2023I really like Setiya's book _Midlife_, but I didn't find this one as thought-provoking. I do like his general approach that we should not start by trying to identify the "best possible life" (which after all may only be possible due to the subordination of whole classes of other people), but rather by thinking about good lives that are attainable in a more broad-based way. However, I didn't come away from the book with any real novel insights on the topic.
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