How (and why) to choose your philosophy of life

A philosophical guide for living a good life

How To Live A Good Life: A Guide To Choosing Your Personal Philosophy, edited by Pigliucci, Cleary and Kaufman, is a new volume collecting together 15 philosophers’ stories of how and why they chose their life philosophies. Here, the editors explain why selecting a life philosophy is an important decision, and how they picked their own.

Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Clearly, that’s an exaggeration. Nevertheless, some philosophers have argued that if we don’t pay attention to why we live in a certain way rather than any other, we risk “misliving” our only life, getting to the end of it, on our proverbial death bed, and thinking: “shoot, I wasted it!” Or, as Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilych puts it: “Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done… But how could that be, when I did everything properly?”

In order to save you from Ilych’s fate, the three of us have asked 15 philosophers to write about their own life philosophy (or religion). Not just in terms of theory and doctrine, but especially with regard to how they practice it and what kind of impact it has made on their lives. Responses included ancient philosophies from the East (Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism); ancient philosophies from the West (Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Epicureanism); religious traditions (Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Ethical Culture); and modern philosophies (Existentialism, Pragmatism, Effective Altruism, and Secular Humanism).

But wait a minute: basic research in psychology clearly shows that too many choices have a paralyzing effect, so isn’t this a bit too much of a smorgasbord? To put it even more clearly: how, exactly, does one go about choosing a philosophy of life? By what criteria? How do we avoid “buyer’s regret,” if we make a choice and then are not happy with it? Speaking of happiness: how does it enter into it? Is it really the business of a life philosophy to make us happy? Does the concept of happiness even make sense? Let’s try to put some order upon the matter, and address three specific issues: the nature of a life philosophy; whether happiness is the goal of such a philosophy; and how to go about choosing one.

Continue reading

Enjoy unlimited access to the world's leading thinkers.

Start by exploring our subscription options or joining our mailing list today.

Start Free Trial

Already a subscriber? Log in

Latest Releases
Join the conversation

Kyle Ortiz 16 April 2024

There are many schools of philosophy, from Stoicism's focus on reason to Existentialism's emphasis on individual freedom. Reading the works of great philosophers or even summaries of their ideas can broaden your perspective

briefs cavities 14 December 2022

I appreciate you giving this fantastic and instructive post.

talley chan 20 December 2021

Thank you for providing this brief piece of information. I'm also fascinated by how great history is created across the world.

kylie smith 1 December 2021

nice post

vifa may 4 August 2021

thanks for sharing this quick info. We are also providing filmefast or seriale turcesti subtitrat in romana.https://release1.net

Jonathan Kirby 9 July 2021

Game developers have continuously created new games that are extremely friendly to your life https://bubble-shooter.co

Jonathan Kirby 9 July 2021

Thank you for the helpful post. By the way, try playing this Vex 5 for fun in your free time. https://vex5.io

John Parker 1 30 June 2021

According to our professional students there, any [url=https://www.paperwriter.co.uk/writing/capstone-project/]professional capstone project writing service [/url] students in UK and US universities that are really concern about their academic journey because they want to achieve good grades in their related field and pass their [url= https://www.paperwriter.co.uk/writing/book-writing-service/]expert book writing service [/url]final examination in good grades. Due to all hectic routines, we are here for you and bring you, experts, as per your requirement.