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Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy
In Love with Life: Reflections on the Joy of Living and Why We Hate to Die
Offers clear and instructive wisdom on how love of life enriches and drives human existence, even in the face of inevitable sadness, loss, and death.
Ancient philosophers used to write "how-to" manuals for living. The classical American philosophers Dewey, Santayana, James, and Royce all published works that dealt with everyday concerns and issues that affected all people. Yet today, many academic philosophers talk mostly among themselves about technical points in logic or semantics or other abstruse subjects less applicable to everyday life.
Not John Lachs. In this engaging book, Lachs reminds us of the centrality of philosophy to life. He provides us with a philosophy of living and a framework to apply to the most basic and critical issues we face. He enables us to see things in new and expansive ways. Fundamental ethical choices such as suicide and euthanasia, the trying and often meaningless circumstances of modern life, confusions of ends and means, and just being tired of it all-- these concerns all come under Lachs's discerning eye. He advocates confronting the complexities of life head on, with courage and persistence. Only through our own efforts and activities can we place our experiences in new and broader contexts, enabling us to find release from despair and frustration and to derive the most out of even the worst situations.
Lachs shows that the good life involves joyous energy to the end. In Love with Life will help readers tap life's resources to face inescapable sadness, loss, and death. This is a book for everyone who has ever wondered how to reconcile the pervasive joys and frequent doubts that life presents to all of us.
Thoughtful readers will find both inspiration and tough-minded virtue in this book.
Ancient philosophers used to write "how-to" manuals for living. The classical American philosophers Dewey, Santayana, James, and Royce all published works that dealt with everyday concerns and issues that affected all people. Yet today, many academic philosophers talk mostly among themselves about technical points in logic or semantics or other abstruse subjects less applicable to everyday life.
Not John Lachs. In this engaging book, Lachs reminds us of the centrality of philosophy to life. He provides us with a philosophy of living and a framework to apply to the most basic and critical issues we face. He enables us to see things in new and expansive ways. Fundamental ethical choices such as suicide and euthanasia, the trying and often meaningless circumstances of modern life, confusions of ends and means, and just being tired of it all-- these concerns all come under Lachs's discerning eye. He advocates confronting the complexities of life head on, with courage and persistence. Only through our own efforts and activities can we place our experiences in new and broader contexts, enabling us to find release from despair and frustration and to derive the most out of even the worst situations.
Lachs shows that the good life involves joyous energy to the end. In Love with Life will help readers tap life's resources to face inescapable sadness, loss, and death. This is a book for everyone who has ever wondered how to reconcile the pervasive joys and frequent doubts that life presents to all of us.
Thoughtful readers will find both inspiration and tough-minded virtue in this book.
- GenresPhilosophy
128 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 1998
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February 19, 2020"Silly"?! No. This little book is humane, profound, and in the right hands life-altering."Engaging" is an understatement. John is one of the kindest, most decent and genuine human beings on the planet.
I now teach a Philosophy of Happiness course at a large public university. Lachs is the reason why. Like David Hume ("Be a philosopher, but be still a man") he radiates a sane life-work balance. Be a philosopher, even be a Stoic and a Pragmatist, but stay human and be happy. Love life to its very end.
In 2008, my Dad was diagnosed with late-stage leukemia. In his waning days that summer he picked up and annotated the inscribed copy of Lachs’s In Love With Life: reflections on the joy of living and why we hate to die (Vanderbilt, 1998 ) I’d given him in much earlier and healthier days. Dad wrote that it “took on much greater significance when thoroughly digested in 2008.” He died that September.
Lachs: “The lesson is clear. Love life so long as there is something worth loving… But at some point, wanting more life runs into the chill reality that the kind of life we can get is no longer worth the cost. This does not mean that we surrender our love of life. As in a broken love affair, we give up the loved one, not the love. With anguish or with quiet resignation, we face the fact that the days of love are gone.”
Dad: “Well expressed!”
Lachs: “All it takes to overcome tiredness with life is to open open our eyes. The world is throbbing with energy and promise, and if we can view it as kin to us, as our home, as in some sense ours, its movement will forever hold our gaze. The fascination abides even if we are too weak to do much more than see what happens next. We need simply to immerse ourselves in the energy of life all around us, as fish do swimming in the throbbing sea.”
Dad: “great!!”
Great!! indeed. Lachs has opened my eyes, to immediacy and to so much else over the years. He is a quintessential humanist, personifying an infectious love of life while repudiating false solace in overly-simple answers to its persistent, inequitous existential riddles. He embodies, enjoys, and demonstrates the liberty of a free mind and heart for whom work and play converge in philosophy.
He’s the right kind of Stoic, not the sort who ridicules positive thinking, disparages optimism, and counsels a general attitude to life of indifference (see Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking). Lachs knows we don’t have to “chase after enjoyable experiences,” we just have to be ready to catch them when they come.
I now teach a Philosophy of Happiness course at a large public university. Lachs is the reason why. Like David Hume ("Be a philosopher, but be still a man") he radiates a sane life-work balance. Be a philosopher, even be a Stoic and a Pragmatist, but stay human and be happy. Love life to its very end.
In 2008, my Dad was diagnosed with late-stage leukemia. In his waning days that summer he picked up and annotated the inscribed copy of Lachs’s In Love With Life: reflections on the joy of living and why we hate to die (Vanderbilt, 1998 ) I’d given him in much earlier and healthier days. Dad wrote that it “took on much greater significance when thoroughly digested in 2008.” He died that September.
Lachs: “The lesson is clear. Love life so long as there is something worth loving… But at some point, wanting more life runs into the chill reality that the kind of life we can get is no longer worth the cost. This does not mean that we surrender our love of life. As in a broken love affair, we give up the loved one, not the love. With anguish or with quiet resignation, we face the fact that the days of love are gone.”
Dad: “Well expressed!”
Lachs: “All it takes to overcome tiredness with life is to open open our eyes. The world is throbbing with energy and promise, and if we can view it as kin to us, as our home, as in some sense ours, its movement will forever hold our gaze. The fascination abides even if we are too weak to do much more than see what happens next. We need simply to immerse ourselves in the energy of life all around us, as fish do swimming in the throbbing sea.”
Dad: “great!!”
Great!! indeed. Lachs has opened my eyes, to immediacy and to so much else over the years. He is a quintessential humanist, personifying an infectious love of life while repudiating false solace in overly-simple answers to its persistent, inequitous existential riddles. He embodies, enjoys, and demonstrates the liberty of a free mind and heart for whom work and play converge in philosophy.
He’s the right kind of Stoic, not the sort who ridicules positive thinking, disparages optimism, and counsels a general attitude to life of indifference (see Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking). Lachs knows we don’t have to “chase after enjoyable experiences,” we just have to be ready to catch them when they come.
June 28, 2018
A pretty silly popular philosophy book, probably long out of print and certainly never cited – I bought it on a whim in a Nashville used book store. Still, I enjoyed it immensely as it had some great references and reflections on the goods of life. I wouldn't say it has any convincing arguments or anything, though.
November 1, 2008
This is a good book to read if you're depressed or losing perspective, to help remind you to find joy in life.
I hear the author is more engaging in person.
I hear the author is more engaging in person.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews