Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
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Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Kieran Setiya (Author, Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 289 ratings
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NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND THE ECONOMIST

“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

There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world.

In this profound and personal book, Setiya shows how the tools of philosophy can help us find our way. Drawing on ancient and modern philosophy as well as fiction, history, memoir, film, comedy, social science, and stories from Setiya’s own experience, Life Is Hard is a book for this moment—a work of solace and compassion.

Warm, accessible, and good-humored, this book is about making the best of a bad lot. It offers guidance for coping with pain and making new friends, for grieving the lost and failing with grace, for confronting injustice and searching for meaning in life. Countering pop psychologists and online influencers who admonish us to “find our bliss” and “live our best lives,” Setiya acknowledges that the best is often out of reach. Instead, he asks how we can weather life’s adversities, finding hope and living well when life is hard.

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  1. Listening Length
    5 hours and 52 minutes
  2. Author
    Kieran Setiya
  3. Narrator
    Kieran Setiya
  4. Audible release date
    October 4, 2022
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Penguin Audio
  7. ASIN
    B09SN772C1
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 5 hours and 52 minutes
Author Kieran Setiya
Narrator Kieran Setiya
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date October 04, 2022
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B09SN772C1
Best Sellers Rank #58,852 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#72 in Consciousness & Thought (Audible Books & Originals)
#125 in Ethics & Morality Philosophy
#311 in Consciousness & Thought Philosophy

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
289 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Nany
5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024
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Although I have never read a book this philosophical, this book changed my life with the chapter on grief. All the chapters brought so much insight and self reflection. It felt depressing at times but was real. I did it with a book club which was ideal.
4 people found this helpful
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Michael P. Kenny
4.0 out of 5 stars There Is No Cure For The Human Condition
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2022
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That is a line in Kieran Setiya's intimate book and should be juxtaposed with a quote he provides from Diogenes, an ancient Greek: "When asked what is most important in life, he said: 'Hope.'" By taking the reader on his personal journey of infirmity, loneliness, grief, failure, injustice, and absurdity, Setiya makes the point that often the best we can do is muddle through short life by recognizing life as it really is -- in the most profound way, for all of us. There is no philosophical Eureka, no happiness Rosetta Stone, just mortal life with all its challenges. Reading Setiya's book with not likely make you happier, but it just might make you a bit wiser. And that is a good reason to read it.
28 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Good for younger readers or freshman students of philosophy.
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2023
If you’re not a particularly intellectual person, who typically has deep thoughts of an existential, psychological, or philosophical nature, this is a beautiful exploration. However, if you have wrestled with your own existence and big life, questions, you may not learn much.

As a perpetual seeker, I wanted to love this book. I had watched some YouTube videos interviewing the author, and found him engaging, intelligent, and forthright. Perhaps it’s age related, but at 70, after spending a lifetime studying psychology, Buddhism, and a smattering of philosophy, I didn’t find much new here. If you’re not a supersaturated solution of information I’m sure you will find it enlightening.

In the chapter on grief he seems to say that if your grief over the death of a loved one lasts more than 18 months, you should probably get some cognitive behavioral therapy. This is an area where he simply doesn’t understand something and assumes he does. There are a few different types of grief he doesn’t consider: complicated grief, unresolved grief, ambiguous loss, and what we can call “regular grief.” I will not go into a lecture on how these are all very different, but they are. And, even unwittingly, pathologizing people who experience grief differently is a disservice to them and everyone else.

Ultimately, I think this book is great for people with an interest in philosophy, but not enough to become philosophy professors, or for young people contemplating a career in philosophy. It’s certainly readable for an educated audience, whatever their philosophical proclivities. My interest waxed and waned.

One caveat:
In chapter 1, where he says: “You can’t be in pain without pathology,” he is blatantly incorrect. Rather than regale you with every bit of scientific evidence supporting that idea, I suggest you read all the research on how pain is in the brain. (You can start with Dr. John Sarno, Dr. Shubiner, Dr. Hanscom, Dr. Clarke, Alan Gordon, etc. You can also read the Boulder back pain study which showed that psychological intervention had a profound effect on minimizing or eliminating back pain in a majority of people who were trained to use it. Perceived danger pain, neuroplastic pain, tension myositis syndrome, mind-body pain, whatever you call it, the brain is incredibly powerful. If you want to do a deeper dive, check out a book by Dr. Candace Pert called: Molecules of Emotion.)
11 people found this helpful
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Kathryn A.Rhea
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent shape
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2023
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Great gift I found and in excellent condition. Would order anytime from the seller.
One person found this helpful
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Rachel B. Kearney
5.0 out of 5 stars This book helps
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2023
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No one book can solve the personal and societal problems that confront us, but Dr Setiya wisely and compassionately offers a way to look at our lives, and a possible courageous path to justice
3 people found this helpful
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Elizabeth
2.0 out of 5 stars too dense
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
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I couldn’t get completely through with the dense philosophy of this book. Maybe it’s just me but I got really bored…
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Joseph Klapper
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, honest, and heartfelt
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2022
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Reading this book is like visiting with old philosophical friends and writers you’ve encountered in your life, but whose insights you’d never before been able to organize. It’s simultaneously comfortable and challenging. I’ve recommended it to everyone I know.
23 people found this helpful
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A. Hurst
2.0 out of 5 stars Short Shrift to Aristotle
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2023
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Little too SJW/woke for me. I appreciate that the author's heart is in the right place, but I think he's plain wrong about Aristotle's take on the good life. Take any name on the author's proffered list of heroic lives, and you will see an individual who adhered closer to a life of practical virtue than not. We'll never reach perfection, but it gives us a direction to point our efforts. This world doesn't make sense, and it isn't fair. It's our task to do all in our power to make it so for as many as we can. Who can argue with that?
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Student of Life
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book in this genre!
Reviewed in Canada on July 17, 2023
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Kieran is not just a philosopher but also a poet! This is the best book I have read in this genre, better than Alain de Botton, better than Robert Nozick, better than any other philosopher's attempt to write for the non-philosophers! 10/10.
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Mucio Castro
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente livro atemporal, sobre as relações do ser humano com doenças crônicas
Reviewed in Brazil on December 5, 2022
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Mais atual impossível!
One person found this helpful
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Jaideep
5.0 out of 5 stars Travelling through Life
Reviewed in India on May 12, 2023
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Kieran Setiya- sows seeds to questioning how you negotiate life with a perspective from History and a connect to current times. Best read over twice to grasp its nuances.
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pd77
1.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new. Boring. Too many quotes.
Reviewed in France on January 19, 2023
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I thought this mght be an interesting book, but it is tedious to read, rather boring, full of quotes but nothing smart or original. Avoid.
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S. Ward
3.0 out of 5 stars And so is this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2023
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This was highly praised by reviewers so I thought I would give it a try. I really wanted to like it, but I confess that I found my attention wandering. I got just over half way through and ground to a halt. I will try again, but I found it hard work. The main difficulty was trying to identify exactly what point the author is trying to make in each chapter (other than the title). I get that we should not always compare our lives with a perfect life, and that a difficult life can also be the best life available and still perfectly good enough, but that doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know. One interesting point was that a break-up (of any kind) is emotionally a kind of bereavement and that we should try to see it the same way (although few people hate the dead merely for dying, many hate their ex's for leaving). So; a lot of effort for a little warmth, although I will give it another go.
4 people found this helpful
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