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The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations
One of this century’s most original philosophical thinkers, Nozick brilliantly renews Socrates’s quest to uncover the life that is worth living. In brave and moving meditations on love, creativity, happiness, sexuality, parents and children, the Holocaust, religious faith, politics, and wisdom, The Examined Life brings philosophy back to its preeminent subject, the things that matter most.
We join in Nozick’s reflections, weighing our experiences and judgments alongside those of past thinkers, to embark upon our own voyages of understanding and change.
We join in Nozick’s reflections, weighing our experiences and judgments alongside those of past thinkers, to embark upon our own voyages of understanding and change.
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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1498 people want to read
About the author
Robert Nozick
31 books292 followersRobert Nozick was an American philosopher and professor at Harvard University. He was educated at Columbia (A.B. 1959, summa cum laude), where he studied with Sidney Morgenbesser, at Princeton (Ph.D. 1963), and Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar. He was a prominent American political philosopher in the 1970s and 1980s. He did additional but less influential work in such subjects as decision theory and epistemology. His Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) was a libertarian answer to John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, published in 1971. He was born in Brooklyn, the son of a Jewish entrepreneur from Russia, and married the American poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg. Nozick died in 2002 after a prolonged struggle with cancer. His remains are interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 17, 2013
Quotes
"Freud tellingly depicted the strong and lingering effects of an even younger age, how the child's passionate desires, inadequate understanding, restricted emotional environment, constricted opportunities, and limited coping devices become fixed upon his own adult emotional life and reactions and continue to affect them. This situation is (to say the least) unseemly-- would you design an intelligent species so continuingly shaped by its childhood, one whose emotions had no half-life and where statutes of limitations could be invoked only with great difficulty?"
"..when all other things are equal, the more concentrated thought goes into making something, the more it is shaped, enriched, and laden with significance. So to with living a life."
"There are very few books that set out what a mature person can believe-- someone fully grown up, I mean. Aristotle's Ethics, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Montaigne's Essays, and the essays of Samuel Johnson come to mind. Even with these, we do not simply accept everything that is said. The author's voice is never our own, exactly; the author's life is never our own. It would be disconcerting, anyway, to find that another person holds precisely our views, responds with our particular sensibility, and thinks exactly the same things important. Still, we can gain from these books, weighing and pondering ourselves in their light. These books-- and also some less evidently grown-up ones, Thoreau's Walden and Nietzsche's writings, for example-- invite or urge us to think along with them, branching in our own directions. We are not identical with the books we read, but neither would we be the same without them."
"They say no one is able to take seriously the possibility of his or her own death, but this does not get it exactly right. (Does everyone take seriously the possibility of his or her own life?) A person's own death does become real to him after the death of both parents. Until then, there was someone else who was "supposed to" die before him; now that no one stands between him and death, it becomes his "turn." (Is it presumed that death will honor a queue?)"
"How unwilling someone is to die should depend, I think, upon what he has left undone, and also upon his remaining capacity to do things. The more what he considered important has been done, and the less capacity that remains, the more willing he should be to face death." (...having done everything you considered important, mightn't you set yourself a new goal?)
"Under any alternative, no doubt, we would welcome an additional chance (at life)-- it would be ironic if we did get one, but, not realizing it was a second chance, squandered it just like the first."
"Nonsurvival is somber, but immortality too fits darker visions. Here is one that at present sounds like science fiction. One day, computer programs will be able to capture a person's intellectual mode, personality pattern, and character structure so that later generations can retrieve these. Thus would be realized one of immortality's two facets: continuing to exist as a coherent pattern of individual personality that another can experience. And the other facet, continuing to experience things and act, might be gained in part if the program encapsulating a person were made to govern a computer that acted in the world. Such immortality need not be wholly a blessing, however. Just as a person's ideas can be misused or vulgarized, so too could later civilizations exploit or misuse someone's individual personality, calling it up to serve projects and purposes the person never would have chosen to cooperate with when alive in the flesh."
"I understand the urge to cling to life until the very end, yet I find another course more appealing. After an ample life, a person who still possesses energy, acuity, and decisiveness might choose to seriously risk his life or lay it down for another person or for some noble and decent cause. Not that this should be done lightly or too soon, but some time before the nature end-- current health levels might suggest an age between seventy and seventy-five-- a person might direct his or her mind and energy toward helping others in a more dramatic and risky fashion than younger, more prudent folk would venture. These activities might involve great health risks in order to serve the sick, risks of physical harm in interposing oneself between oppressors and their victims-- I have in mind the kind of peaceful activities and nonviolent resistance that Gandhi and Martin Luther King engaged in, not a vigilante pursuit of wrongdoers-- or in aiding people within violence-ridden areas... such a path will not be for everyone, but some might seriously weigh spending their penultimate years in a brave and noble endeavor to benefit others, and andventure to advance the cause of truth, goodness, beauty, or holiness-- not going gentle into that good night or raging against the dying of the light but, near the end, shining their light most brightly."
"Being grown-up is a way of no longer being a child, hence a way of relating to one's parents, not just by acting as their parent but by stopping needing or expecting them to act as yours; and this includes stopping expecting the world to be a symbolic parent, too."
"The process of shaping and crafting an artistic work has, as an important part of its impulse, the reshaping and integration of parts of the self. Important and needed work on the self is modeled in the process of artistic creation, and symbolized there. (Might that work on the self also actually be andvanced through the creative work that models it?)"
"Others' explorings, respondings, and creatings enlarge us. In Chaucer's time, people did not know of Shakespeare yet were not conscious of missing anything. It is difficult now to imagine a world in which Shakespeare, Buddha, Jesus, or Einstein are absent, in which their absence goes unnoticed. What comparable voids exist now, waiting to be filled?"
"We are least separate from the world in eating. The world enters into us; it becomes us. We are constituted by portions of the world."
"Seeing everyday life as holy is in part seeing the world and its contents as infinitely receptive to our activities of exploring, responding, relating and creating, as an arena that would richly repay these activities no matter how far they are taken, whether by an individual or by all of humanity together throughout its time."
"I see people descended from a long sequence of human and animal forebears in an unnumbered train of chance events, accidental encounters, brutal takings, lucky escapes, sustained efforts, migrations, survivings of wars and disease. An intricate and improbable concatenation of events was needed to yield each of us, an immense history that gives each person the sacredness of a redwood, each child the whimsy of a secret."
"We want nothing other than to live in a spiral of activities and enhance others' doing so, deepening our own reality as we come into contact and relation with the rest, exploring the dimensions of reality, embodying them in ourselves, creating, responding to the full range of the reality we can discern with the fullest reality we possess, becoming a vehicle for truth, beauty, goodness, and holiness, adding our own characteristic bit to reality's eternal processes. And that wanting of nothing else, along with its attendant emotion, is-- by the way-- what constitutes happiness and joy."
"If we reach adulthood by becoming the parent of our parents, and we reach maturity by finding a fit substitute for parents' love, then by becoming our ideal parent ourselves finally the circle is closed and we reach completeness."
"Freud tellingly depicted the strong and lingering effects of an even younger age, how the child's passionate desires, inadequate understanding, restricted emotional environment, constricted opportunities, and limited coping devices become fixed upon his own adult emotional life and reactions and continue to affect them. This situation is (to say the least) unseemly-- would you design an intelligent species so continuingly shaped by its childhood, one whose emotions had no half-life and where statutes of limitations could be invoked only with great difficulty?"
"..when all other things are equal, the more concentrated thought goes into making something, the more it is shaped, enriched, and laden with significance. So to with living a life."
"There are very few books that set out what a mature person can believe-- someone fully grown up, I mean. Aristotle's Ethics, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Montaigne's Essays, and the essays of Samuel Johnson come to mind. Even with these, we do not simply accept everything that is said. The author's voice is never our own, exactly; the author's life is never our own. It would be disconcerting, anyway, to find that another person holds precisely our views, responds with our particular sensibility, and thinks exactly the same things important. Still, we can gain from these books, weighing and pondering ourselves in their light. These books-- and also some less evidently grown-up ones, Thoreau's Walden and Nietzsche's writings, for example-- invite or urge us to think along with them, branching in our own directions. We are not identical with the books we read, but neither would we be the same without them."
"They say no one is able to take seriously the possibility of his or her own death, but this does not get it exactly right. (Does everyone take seriously the possibility of his or her own life?) A person's own death does become real to him after the death of both parents. Until then, there was someone else who was "supposed to" die before him; now that no one stands between him and death, it becomes his "turn." (Is it presumed that death will honor a queue?)"
"How unwilling someone is to die should depend, I think, upon what he has left undone, and also upon his remaining capacity to do things. The more what he considered important has been done, and the less capacity that remains, the more willing he should be to face death." (...having done everything you considered important, mightn't you set yourself a new goal?)
"Under any alternative, no doubt, we would welcome an additional chance (at life)-- it would be ironic if we did get one, but, not realizing it was a second chance, squandered it just like the first."
"Nonsurvival is somber, but immortality too fits darker visions. Here is one that at present sounds like science fiction. One day, computer programs will be able to capture a person's intellectual mode, personality pattern, and character structure so that later generations can retrieve these. Thus would be realized one of immortality's two facets: continuing to exist as a coherent pattern of individual personality that another can experience. And the other facet, continuing to experience things and act, might be gained in part if the program encapsulating a person were made to govern a computer that acted in the world. Such immortality need not be wholly a blessing, however. Just as a person's ideas can be misused or vulgarized, so too could later civilizations exploit or misuse someone's individual personality, calling it up to serve projects and purposes the person never would have chosen to cooperate with when alive in the flesh."
"I understand the urge to cling to life until the very end, yet I find another course more appealing. After an ample life, a person who still possesses energy, acuity, and decisiveness might choose to seriously risk his life or lay it down for another person or for some noble and decent cause. Not that this should be done lightly or too soon, but some time before the nature end-- current health levels might suggest an age between seventy and seventy-five-- a person might direct his or her mind and energy toward helping others in a more dramatic and risky fashion than younger, more prudent folk would venture. These activities might involve great health risks in order to serve the sick, risks of physical harm in interposing oneself between oppressors and their victims-- I have in mind the kind of peaceful activities and nonviolent resistance that Gandhi and Martin Luther King engaged in, not a vigilante pursuit of wrongdoers-- or in aiding people within violence-ridden areas... such a path will not be for everyone, but some might seriously weigh spending their penultimate years in a brave and noble endeavor to benefit others, and andventure to advance the cause of truth, goodness, beauty, or holiness-- not going gentle into that good night or raging against the dying of the light but, near the end, shining their light most brightly."
"Being grown-up is a way of no longer being a child, hence a way of relating to one's parents, not just by acting as their parent but by stopping needing or expecting them to act as yours; and this includes stopping expecting the world to be a symbolic parent, too."
"The process of shaping and crafting an artistic work has, as an important part of its impulse, the reshaping and integration of parts of the self. Important and needed work on the self is modeled in the process of artistic creation, and symbolized there. (Might that work on the self also actually be andvanced through the creative work that models it?)"
"Others' explorings, respondings, and creatings enlarge us. In Chaucer's time, people did not know of Shakespeare yet were not conscious of missing anything. It is difficult now to imagine a world in which Shakespeare, Buddha, Jesus, or Einstein are absent, in which their absence goes unnoticed. What comparable voids exist now, waiting to be filled?"
"We are least separate from the world in eating. The world enters into us; it becomes us. We are constituted by portions of the world."
"Seeing everyday life as holy is in part seeing the world and its contents as infinitely receptive to our activities of exploring, responding, relating and creating, as an arena that would richly repay these activities no matter how far they are taken, whether by an individual or by all of humanity together throughout its time."
"I see people descended from a long sequence of human and animal forebears in an unnumbered train of chance events, accidental encounters, brutal takings, lucky escapes, sustained efforts, migrations, survivings of wars and disease. An intricate and improbable concatenation of events was needed to yield each of us, an immense history that gives each person the sacredness of a redwood, each child the whimsy of a secret."
"We want nothing other than to live in a spiral of activities and enhance others' doing so, deepening our own reality as we come into contact and relation with the rest, exploring the dimensions of reality, embodying them in ourselves, creating, responding to the full range of the reality we can discern with the fullest reality we possess, becoming a vehicle for truth, beauty, goodness, and holiness, adding our own characteristic bit to reality's eternal processes. And that wanting of nothing else, along with its attendant emotion, is-- by the way-- what constitutes happiness and joy."
"If we reach adulthood by becoming the parent of our parents, and we reach maturity by finding a fit substitute for parents' love, then by becoming our ideal parent ourselves finally the circle is closed and we reach completeness."
December 10, 2008
I come back to this book frequently, in my thinking and in certain of the classes I teach. Breathtaking is a word that comes to mind, in the way Nozick tests his philosophical skills against what used to be called the human condition. Highly recommended if you're interested in reflecting on the things we take for granted in life.
February 24, 2019
'I do not say with Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth living – that is unnecessarily harsh. However, when we guide our lives by our own pondered thoughts, it then is our life that we are living, not someone else's. In this sense, the unexamined life is not lived as fully.'
Taking a cue from the introduction, this book might also have been called 'The Life Not Lived on Auto Pilot.' If my own experience is anything like the typical one, that is the easiest type of life to lead. Insidiously so. This book is less a comprehensive philosophical treatise than it is a collection of disparate essays on the many facets of a life, both the mundane and the arcane, all to one purpose: to make the reader pause and consider. A small sample: parenting, childhood, dying, God, faith, sex, emotions, everyday life, meaning, value.
It was very much a mixed bag. There were one or two chapters that only furnished me with the minimal amount of empirical knowledge – an awareness of that faint whistling sound you hear as something passes by far, far over your head. However, the majority of the book was clear, concise, and – it is probably no surprise to hear this - analytical to a fault. It was evident the author had been turning some of these topics over in his mind for a long time before he ever put pen to paper. Not a slap dash affair by any means. Stand out chapters for me were the ones on theodicies and ideals and actuals.
I suppose if you have settled ideas about all facets of what life is about you might not get much out of this book but if not, it might provide some additional grist for the mental mill:
'Sometimes we tend to be dismissive of possibilities, including ones we know very little about, because we do not want them to be true, even though they may appear or be quite wonderful. They would require too great a reorganization of our general picture of the world, and of our lives, habits, modes of thought, and goals. We have adapted to the apparent limits of our (personal, intellectual, and cultural) niches and we do not any longer want to believe those limits are malleable. So, we quickly dismiss a possibility with a slick argument and we are comforted and relieved – the necessity of drastic change has been avoided! A wise person, though, would be open to learning new things without being overly credulous. He would pay careful attention to new and surprising possibilities, explore them tentatively, experiment. If a possibility offers some confirmations along the way – whether illuminating and powerful experiences, desirable personal transformations, or encounters with impressive others who have pursued that possibility further – he will continue more confidently, yet still with some caution. Pascal recommended staking everything in life on the possibility of infinite gain, but we do better to recall the two types of errors statisticians describe – rejecting something when it is true or accepting it when it is false – and to wend our way, sometimes daringly but still with tentativeness, doing our best to avoid, on this important matter, an error in either direction.'
Taking a cue from the introduction, this book might also have been called 'The Life Not Lived on Auto Pilot.' If my own experience is anything like the typical one, that is the easiest type of life to lead. Insidiously so. This book is less a comprehensive philosophical treatise than it is a collection of disparate essays on the many facets of a life, both the mundane and the arcane, all to one purpose: to make the reader pause and consider. A small sample: parenting, childhood, dying, God, faith, sex, emotions, everyday life, meaning, value.
It was very much a mixed bag. There were one or two chapters that only furnished me with the minimal amount of empirical knowledge – an awareness of that faint whistling sound you hear as something passes by far, far over your head. However, the majority of the book was clear, concise, and – it is probably no surprise to hear this - analytical to a fault. It was evident the author had been turning some of these topics over in his mind for a long time before he ever put pen to paper. Not a slap dash affair by any means. Stand out chapters for me were the ones on theodicies and ideals and actuals.
I suppose if you have settled ideas about all facets of what life is about you might not get much out of this book but if not, it might provide some additional grist for the mental mill:
'Sometimes we tend to be dismissive of possibilities, including ones we know very little about, because we do not want them to be true, even though they may appear or be quite wonderful. They would require too great a reorganization of our general picture of the world, and of our lives, habits, modes of thought, and goals. We have adapted to the apparent limits of our (personal, intellectual, and cultural) niches and we do not any longer want to believe those limits are malleable. So, we quickly dismiss a possibility with a slick argument and we are comforted and relieved – the necessity of drastic change has been avoided! A wise person, though, would be open to learning new things without being overly credulous. He would pay careful attention to new and surprising possibilities, explore them tentatively, experiment. If a possibility offers some confirmations along the way – whether illuminating and powerful experiences, desirable personal transformations, or encounters with impressive others who have pursued that possibility further – he will continue more confidently, yet still with some caution. Pascal recommended staking everything in life on the possibility of infinite gain, but we do better to recall the two types of errors statisticians describe – rejecting something when it is true or accepting it when it is false – and to wend our way, sometimes daringly but still with tentativeness, doing our best to avoid, on this important matter, an error in either direction.'
February 21, 2021
Of all of Robert Nozick's books that I have read this is the one to which I return most frequently. He displays a depth of thought, references to other thinkers, and a prose style which I find inviting. That is I am spurred to think about how and why I agree or disagree with the author, but more importantly find the process of reading him a catalyst for my own thinking.
Happiness is just one of the subjects essayed in this book but it is a good example as when you encounter Nozick saying:"And although it might be best of all to be Socrates satisfied, having both happiness and depth, we would give up some happiness in order to gain the depth."(p 102) And I would add parenthetically, of an examined life. The breadth of the book is astounding, from death to love to meaning and value in life, and more. The discussion of "great spiritual teachers" in the essay "Giving Everything Its Due"(p 253-266) is a good example of thinking beyond the typical teacher as example by contrasting the value of leading a comparatively more "balanced life" as compared to the singularity of the great teachers. I continue to find further stimulus to thought, just as in other great books, when I return to this collection of imaginative and analytical essays that both explore and examine of what it means to aspire to live a humane life.
He discusses the view of Socrates that the examined life is not worth living in the introduction and concludes:
"I do not say with Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth living--that is unnecessarily harsh. However, when we guide our lives by our own pondered thoughts, it is then our life that we are living, not someone else's. In this sense, the unexamined life is not lived as fully."(p 15)
Happiness is just one of the subjects essayed in this book but it is a good example as when you encounter Nozick saying:"And although it might be best of all to be Socrates satisfied, having both happiness and depth, we would give up some happiness in order to gain the depth."(p 102) And I would add parenthetically, of an examined life. The breadth of the book is astounding, from death to love to meaning and value in life, and more. The discussion of "great spiritual teachers" in the essay "Giving Everything Its Due"(p 253-266) is a good example of thinking beyond the typical teacher as example by contrasting the value of leading a comparatively more "balanced life" as compared to the singularity of the great teachers. I continue to find further stimulus to thought, just as in other great books, when I return to this collection of imaginative and analytical essays that both explore and examine of what it means to aspire to live a humane life.
He discusses the view of Socrates that the examined life is not worth living in the introduction and concludes:
"I do not say with Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth living--that is unnecessarily harsh. However, when we guide our lives by our own pondered thoughts, it is then our life that we are living, not someone else's. In this sense, the unexamined life is not lived as fully."(p 15)
September 1, 2025
¿A qué llamamos Dios? ¿Su existencia es compatible con el mal? ¿Qué es el amor romántico, qué es amar? ¿Qué es el "yo"? ¿El único fin de la vida es la felicidad? ¿Qué es la realidad? ¿Qué son las emociones, se pueden controlar? ¿Cuales son los niveles que componen la ética? ¿Qué normas deberían regir una sociedad política? ¿Qué es la realidad? ¿Que significa ser sabio? Etc. Es prácticamente imposible que el libro no aborde al menos un tema del interés de cualquier persona.
Cada capitulo es una reflexión —no una conclusión— relativamente independiente del resto, si un tema no te interesa puedes saltarlo sin problemas (el propio autor insta a hacer esto en apartados particularmente densos). Las reflexiones —pese a ser breves por el formato— son técnicas y razonadas, pero rara vez se hace difícil de leer.
Leer este libro se siente como escuchar los pensamientos del autor. En el libro hay cambios interesantes de posturas respecto de otras obras suyas —me refiero a Anarquía Estado y Utopía— aunque más tarde aclararía que su cambio tampoco fue tan radical como muchos afirmaron. Él mismo pone en duda sus propas reflexiones muchas veces incluso te anima a cuestionarlas; algunas son simplemente desarrollos de ideas por pura especulación y no tanto ideas propias: aunque no piense X, supongamos X; entonces...
En ocasiones estarás de acuerdo con él y en otras no, pero el libro logra en todo momento ser una invitación a la reflexión sobre muchos temas tan interesantes como relevantes.
El hilo central del libro es claro: una vida autoexaminada, reflexiva y critica es mejor que una autocomplaciente e irreflexiva. De esta forma podrás cultivar tus virtudes (Aristóteles) siguiendo tu proyecto personal de vida, y podrás convertirte en la clase de persona de la que considerarías un honor y un placer recibir amor y reconocimiento .
Cada capitulo es una reflexión —no una conclusión— relativamente independiente del resto, si un tema no te interesa puedes saltarlo sin problemas (el propio autor insta a hacer esto en apartados particularmente densos). Las reflexiones —pese a ser breves por el formato— son técnicas y razonadas, pero rara vez se hace difícil de leer.
Leer este libro se siente como escuchar los pensamientos del autor. En el libro hay cambios interesantes de posturas respecto de otras obras suyas —me refiero a Anarquía Estado y Utopía— aunque más tarde aclararía que su cambio tampoco fue tan radical como muchos afirmaron. Él mismo pone en duda sus propas reflexiones muchas veces incluso te anima a cuestionarlas; algunas son simplemente desarrollos de ideas por pura especulación y no tanto ideas propias: aunque no piense X, supongamos X; entonces...
En ocasiones estarás de acuerdo con él y en otras no, pero el libro logra en todo momento ser una invitación a la reflexión sobre muchos temas tan interesantes como relevantes.
El hilo central del libro es claro: una vida autoexaminada, reflexiva y critica es mejor que una autocomplaciente e irreflexiva. De esta forma podrás cultivar tus virtudes (Aristóteles) siguiendo tu proyecto personal de vida, y podrás convertirte en la clase de persona de la que considerarías un honor y un placer recibir amor y reconocimiento .
June 29, 2016
A great source for philosophy enthusiasts and people who love to think. The author brings up several themes and discuss them from a philosophical point of view. Some parts are hard to grasp so you might want to read them multiple times. One thing, and maybe that's the beauty of this book, is that I don't always agree with the author's points. It was a different kind of experience to find out what I think about certain things in comparison to author's ideas.
May 25, 2015
I am only a little ways into this book, and it is extremely absorbing and terrific. More to come soon.
December 3, 2021
Nozick has been famous for his book on Anarchism, he clenches a completely different perspective regarding the term Anarchy, and that's what makes him the renowned writer among the pedantic circles.
The review of this recent book is if honestly purported, then I have found the book very abstract based, which means that the book as according to my personal opinion wasn't in such detail as like how I always expected from a Nietzsche, Hegel, Kant, Karl Marx, Russell, Aristotle, Heidegger, Camus, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Gorky or any related writer who writes in very depth manners.
Although, his book is fine for the people who want to clarify their concepts regarding basic morals, life, death, values and virtue and many more. The person with the intent to want to plunge into philosophy will find it more worthwhile and beneficial.
New readers who want to come into the philosophy should read him. 👍👍
The review of this recent book is if honestly purported, then I have found the book very abstract based, which means that the book as according to my personal opinion wasn't in such detail as like how I always expected from a Nietzsche, Hegel, Kant, Karl Marx, Russell, Aristotle, Heidegger, Camus, Kafka, Dostoevsky, Gorky or any related writer who writes in very depth manners.
Although, his book is fine for the people who want to clarify their concepts regarding basic morals, life, death, values and virtue and many more. The person with the intent to want to plunge into philosophy will find it more worthwhile and beneficial.
New readers who want to come into the philosophy should read him. 👍👍
June 26, 2024
While some of this book was above my pay grade and/or a little convoluted in the abstract and metaphysical departments, it was such a satisfying and joyful experience to sit with Nozick’s voice and learn new ways of thinking about important topics related to a complete and fulfilling life. Some parts were puzzling, others scintillating and full of wit and wisdom, but in the end the passages drenched in humanism and love for life and our brief existence were the ones that felt the closest to what Nozick was setting out to do. Definitely a book I wish to return to many times in the future.
June 15, 2021
3 stars...
It was readable. The translation was not well polished.
Some stuff was just insane to the point that I felt he was on LSD while writing. Though, he probably just was letting his imagination run wild.
At points he just assumed too much; but some of his texts were good.
It was readable. The translation was not well polished.
Some stuff was just insane to the point that I felt he was on LSD while writing. Though, he probably just was letting his imagination run wild.
At points he just assumed too much; but some of his texts were good.
August 9, 2010
Nozick's musings in Examined Life are varied and interesting. His political leanings after a lifetime of philosophizing are much less brash than the ideas in his earlier work, Anarchy, State and Utopia. He no longer espouses anarcho-capitalism, and arguably not even libertarianism, making this, for better or for worse, the less shocking of the two books.
The other essays on non-political topics are interesting and occasionally enlightening, but not consistently enough to have me reaching for the book in my spare moments. Still, there's a lot of wisdom here and his approach to solving problems is fascinating. I'm shelving it for now but I'm sure I'll come back to it in the future.
The other essays on non-political topics are interesting and occasionally enlightening, but not consistently enough to have me reaching for the book in my spare moments. Still, there's a lot of wisdom here and his approach to solving problems is fascinating. I'm shelving it for now but I'm sure I'll come back to it in the future.
September 17, 2009
This book covered a wide variety of philosophical topics. It's overall pretty easy to read, especially in the beginning, though I did get a bit confused on how he differentiated value, meaning, height, depth, etc.
Want to read
October 23, 2007This was on Shirley Mullen's recommended reading list under the category of "philosophy."
August 24, 2015
Reflect and introspect with an esteemed mind.
August 22, 2024
Remember the scene in the movie Animal House when the guy gets high for the first time and wonders if there is an entire universe in one atom in his thumb? Parts of Examined Life had such a navel-gazing feel to them.
Examined Life is a collection of dense, hard to follow musings on philosophy and life. The author has the annoying habit of including parenthetical asides and extensive footnotes - so much so that some bled into the next page. Many of the chapters wandered off into a theoretical land that perhaps only a student of philosophy would understand. I did not. The fact that it took me upwards of three months to read a 300 page books speaks to its lack of approachability.
The best chapters were the ones about theological explanations and ideals. They stood on their own and were easier to follow.
Overall, I am glad to be finished and will not be changing my life in any way after finishing the book. A couple of models to think about but not well-formed.
Thanks to Carsen for the recommendation - I am always up for a challenge. Cheers.
Examined Life is a collection of dense, hard to follow musings on philosophy and life. The author has the annoying habit of including parenthetical asides and extensive footnotes - so much so that some bled into the next page. Many of the chapters wandered off into a theoretical land that perhaps only a student of philosophy would understand. I did not. The fact that it took me upwards of three months to read a 300 page books speaks to its lack of approachability.
The best chapters were the ones about theological explanations and ideals. They stood on their own and were easier to follow.
Overall, I am glad to be finished and will not be changing my life in any way after finishing the book. A couple of models to think about but not well-formed.
Thanks to Carsen for the recommendation - I am always up for a challenge. Cheers.
May 5, 2021
This book has offered me an opportunity to ponder on my own life's journey. It invites the reader to call forth impending thoughts enfolding some of the human beings' central concerns, focusing on themes like, for example, happiness; immortality; wealth and power; enlightenment; creativity; the nature of emotions; God; romantic love; wisdom; the nature of reality; etc.
I am currently thinking of pursuing Robert Nozicks' philosophy a step further, possibly continuing with his book "Philosophical Explanations". As I progress with my philosophical studies, I can only hope to be able to draw a clearer self-portrait and reach a firm grasp of my own reality.
I am currently thinking of pursuing Robert Nozicks' philosophy a step further, possibly continuing with his book "Philosophical Explanations". As I progress with my philosophical studies, I can only hope to be able to draw a clearer self-portrait and reach a firm grasp of my own reality.
November 23, 2018
I am rating this after my reading in the 80's or so. BUT, I remember Nozick and I recall how much I enjoyed the book. It is on my list of re-reads. He was my introduction to libertarianism, which I think I still hold as part of my make-up, though a bit more understanding of the absolute need of caring of some of our most destitute individuals.
February 18, 2020
If this book has no other value then the chapter called "The Zigzag of Politics" is well worth reading and reviewing. It might be called "A Critique of Pure Libertarianism" In it Nozick qualifies his earlier adherence to libertarianism and justifies the use of government to do the right thing to make sure people are treated fairly in society. Well done.
April 13, 2020
I loved Anarchy, State and Utopia and was very much looking forward to this read! Nozick philosophises on mening, value, reality and what makes a life important. I didn't get the same stream of conscience-feel I loved so much in Anarchy, State and Utopia but the book still has its shares of page-long footnotes with a lot of questions left unanswered or even unattempted by the author. Worthy read!
September 8, 2024
I took this as a light reading and not a philosophical/political one. In some sense I feel sentimental as it is wonderous to read thinkers you appreciate have gone through life reflecting on similar personal themes, ideas etc. it feels as if we share a profound connection of disposition.
November 21, 2019
Erudite, lyrical , thoughtful. I return to it often. I gift it to my friends.
April 3, 2020
lmao the chapter "the matrix of reality"
September 14, 2021
Only okay. Some interesting thoughts.
May 18, 2024
Lucid and insightful observations and interpretations of both the mundane and ethereal parts of life. I’ll be rereading this collection of essays for the rest of my life.
June 27, 2025
哲学家如果深刻而不啰嗦的话，会更有意义。
January 10, 2022
Nozick trata en cada capítulo una cuestión diferente de la vida (el amor, la muerte, la felicidad, etc.). Por momentos es muy interesante y lo hace a uno reflexionar y poner en perspectiva las cosas, pero por otro lado algunas partes del libro las sentí demasiado tediosas.
November 30, 2016
E' possibile pensare la vita? C'è chi lo fa giorno per giorno, con grande sofferenza e partecipazione. Chi invece non sa cosa pensare. A dire il vero, non ci pensa proprio a come vive. Il più delle volte, addirittura, molti non sanno nemmeno che stanno vivendo e, se lo sanno, vivono come se non dovessero mai morire.
Robert Nozick, professore alla prestigiosa Harvard University a soli trent'anni, ne "La vita pensata" (1989) affronta le questioni più familiari e importanti della nostra vita con il rigore, la lucidità e la chiarezza propri della tradizione analitica.
Ci parla della morte, del rapporto tra genitori e figli, della santità della vita quotidiana, dell'amore, dell'amicizia, dell'attività sessuale, delle emozioni, del modo in cui possiamo essere più reali - dotati di uno spessore e di un peso più elevati e molto altro ancora.
La profondità dei suoi pensieri, la raffinatezza del suo stile argomentativo e della sua scrittura, il personalissimo ritratto di vita che propone ci restituiscono tutta la vitalità e la bellezza della filosofia come esercizio di riflessione su noi stessi. Un esercizio che non ha mai fine.
Il libro cerca di rispondere a interrogativi quali: Perché la felicità non è l'unica cosa che conta? Come potrebbe essere l'immortalità, e che senso avrebbe? I beni ereditari dovrebbero passare di generazione in generazione? Le dottrine orientali dell'illuminazione sono valide? Che cos'è la creatività. Perché la gente indugia nell'affrontare progetti promettenti? Che cosa perderemmo se non provassimo mai alcuna emozione ma potessimo comunque avere sensazioni piacevoli? In che modo l'Olocausto ha cambiato l'umanità? Che cosa non torna, quando si pensa soprattutto alla ricchezza e al potere?
Una persona religiosa può spiegare perché Dio permette che ci sia il male? Che cosa c'è di particolarmente pregevole nel modo in cui l'amore passionale altera una persona? Che cos'è la saggezza, e perché i filosofi la amano tanto? Che dire del divario tra ideali e fatti? Esistono cose più reali di altre, e possiamo noi stessi diventare più reali? Ho letto questo libro impegnativo nell'edizione inglese, e devo dire che non è stata una cosa facile anche se la prosa del professore è lucida e scorrevole.
Qualche anno fa è passato, ancora giovane, a miglior vita e ho ripreso in mano questo suo libro decidendomi a scrivere qualcosa, spinto anche da una lettura convergente ed inaspettata di una breve poesia del cardinale inglese J.H. Newman. Nozick, scrivendo il suo libro, forse ambiva a stilare un progetto di vita per sè e per gli altri. In 27 capitoli egli tenta di "esaminare" la vita pensandola in tutte le sfaccettature possibili. Con filosofia e anche tanto pragmatismo tipicamente anglosassone.
Il cardinale, invece, affrontava la questione da un altro punto di vista, totalmente diverso. Nozick lo ipotizza, lo costruisce, lo erige sulla sua esperienza culturale ed esistenziale. Newman il suo progetto di vita lo intuisce già pensato e proposto da chi solo può e sa progettare come nessuno, erigendo la sua costruzione sulle tavole della legge, i suoi Comandamenti. Tutta la filosofia di Nozick e del mondo scompaiono in pochi semplici versi che non tormentano l'animo dell'uomo, ma si liberano verso l'alto profferendo un semplice "sì". Esso sta ad indicare l'accettazione dell'uomo al suo Creatore a realizzare un progetto misterioso e straordinario che trova la sua ragione d'essere nella sua infinita bontà.
IL MIO SI'
"Io sono creato
per realizzare un progetto
per cui nessun altro è creato.
Io occupo un posto mio
nei consigli di Dio,
nel mondo di Dio:
un posto da nessun altro occupato.
Poco importa che io sia ricco,
povero, disprezzato o stimato
dagli uomini:
Dio mi conosce
e mi chiama per nome.
Egli mi ha affidato un lavoro
che non ha affidato a nessun altro.
Io ho la mia missione,
in qualche modo
sono necessario ai suoi intenti.
Dio non mi ha creato inutilmente.
Io farò del bene, farò il Suo lavoro:
sarò un angelo di pace
un predicatore della verità
nel posto che Dio mi ha assegnato
anche senza che io lo sappia
purchè io segua
i Suoi comandamenti
e Lo serva nella mia vocazione"
(Cardinale J. H. Newman).
Robert Nozick, professore alla prestigiosa Harvard University a soli trent'anni, ne "La vita pensata" (1989) affronta le questioni più familiari e importanti della nostra vita con il rigore, la lucidità e la chiarezza propri della tradizione analitica.
Ci parla della morte, del rapporto tra genitori e figli, della santità della vita quotidiana, dell'amore, dell'amicizia, dell'attività sessuale, delle emozioni, del modo in cui possiamo essere più reali - dotati di uno spessore e di un peso più elevati e molto altro ancora.
La profondità dei suoi pensieri, la raffinatezza del suo stile argomentativo e della sua scrittura, il personalissimo ritratto di vita che propone ci restituiscono tutta la vitalità e la bellezza della filosofia come esercizio di riflessione su noi stessi. Un esercizio che non ha mai fine.
Il libro cerca di rispondere a interrogativi quali: Perché la felicità non è l'unica cosa che conta? Come potrebbe essere l'immortalità, e che senso avrebbe? I beni ereditari dovrebbero passare di generazione in generazione? Le dottrine orientali dell'illuminazione sono valide? Che cos'è la creatività. Perché la gente indugia nell'affrontare progetti promettenti? Che cosa perderemmo se non provassimo mai alcuna emozione ma potessimo comunque avere sensazioni piacevoli? In che modo l'Olocausto ha cambiato l'umanità? Che cosa non torna, quando si pensa soprattutto alla ricchezza e al potere?
Una persona religiosa può spiegare perché Dio permette che ci sia il male? Che cosa c'è di particolarmente pregevole nel modo in cui l'amore passionale altera una persona? Che cos'è la saggezza, e perché i filosofi la amano tanto? Che dire del divario tra ideali e fatti? Esistono cose più reali di altre, e possiamo noi stessi diventare più reali? Ho letto questo libro impegnativo nell'edizione inglese, e devo dire che non è stata una cosa facile anche se la prosa del professore è lucida e scorrevole.
Qualche anno fa è passato, ancora giovane, a miglior vita e ho ripreso in mano questo suo libro decidendomi a scrivere qualcosa, spinto anche da una lettura convergente ed inaspettata di una breve poesia del cardinale inglese J.H. Newman. Nozick, scrivendo il suo libro, forse ambiva a stilare un progetto di vita per sè e per gli altri. In 27 capitoli egli tenta di "esaminare" la vita pensandola in tutte le sfaccettature possibili. Con filosofia e anche tanto pragmatismo tipicamente anglosassone.
Il cardinale, invece, affrontava la questione da un altro punto di vista, totalmente diverso. Nozick lo ipotizza, lo costruisce, lo erige sulla sua esperienza culturale ed esistenziale. Newman il suo progetto di vita lo intuisce già pensato e proposto da chi solo può e sa progettare come nessuno, erigendo la sua costruzione sulle tavole della legge, i suoi Comandamenti. Tutta la filosofia di Nozick e del mondo scompaiono in pochi semplici versi che non tormentano l'animo dell'uomo, ma si liberano verso l'alto profferendo un semplice "sì". Esso sta ad indicare l'accettazione dell'uomo al suo Creatore a realizzare un progetto misterioso e straordinario che trova la sua ragione d'essere nella sua infinita bontà.
IL MIO SI'
"Io sono creato
per realizzare un progetto
per cui nessun altro è creato.
Io occupo un posto mio
nei consigli di Dio,
nel mondo di Dio:
un posto da nessun altro occupato.
Poco importa che io sia ricco,
povero, disprezzato o stimato
dagli uomini:
Dio mi conosce
e mi chiama per nome.
Egli mi ha affidato un lavoro
che non ha affidato a nessun altro.
Io ho la mia missione,
in qualche modo
sono necessario ai suoi intenti.
Dio non mi ha creato inutilmente.
Io farò del bene, farò il Suo lavoro:
sarò un angelo di pace
un predicatore della verità
nel posto che Dio mi ha assegnato
anche senza che io lo sappia
purchè io segua
i Suoi comandamenti
e Lo serva nella mia vocazione"
(Cardinale J. H. Newman).
April 27, 2010
Nozick is most famous for his defense of libertarianism in Anarchy, State and Utopia. I consider myself a libertarian, but ultimately found myself unsatisfied with it. People spoke of how original it was and how rigorous. But it was like that old saw, what was good wasn't original; what wasn't original wasn't good. I had found far better arguments for liberty. And far more accessible to the layman than the academic talk and symbolic logic filling Anarchy, State and Utopia.
The Examined Life is a collection of essays concerning various topics from "Dying" to "The Matrix of Reality." I did find some interesting ideas and insights sprinkled throughout those parts I read, but I found him often too frustrating. Not in the sense of Anarchy, State and Utopia that it seemed abstruse, but I just didn't resonate with the philosophy he presented. So much seemed incoherent and wrong-headed to me. I disagreed with his delineation of romantic love in "Love's Bond." It made me think of Ayn Rand's parody of someone insisting they wanted to be loved for themself--but not for anything about them. If love means stripping the loved one of their identity, if you can't love a characteristic about them, what's left to love? Nozick tries to develop this idea of a unique constellation of characteristics but I didn't find the distinction helpful. Then there's "The Zig Zag of Politics" where he tried to walk back his argument for libertarianism. If I found his argument for libertarianism unconvincing, I found his argument against it incoherent and sloppy. His argument is that doing things through government, such as the welfare state "marks" those issues for importance. OK, so Sadaam Hussein was torturing his countrymen and perpetuating a police state. Does that mean that's an argument for us to make war? Anyone noticed how that worked out? Or our intervention in Vietnam? Or Libya. Of all the arguments I've heard for the welfare state, this was the lamest. Finally, one of the essays that made the biggest impression on me was "The Holocaust" where he states it "would not be a special tragedy if humankind ended." WTF? The whole reason the Holocaust was a tragedy was because of what it did to human beings. And sadly, I can't say I see it as a particular break with history. Larger in scope perhaps. But to claim for it more than that is to be sadly ignorant of history. And that argument to me felt like a slap at the victims even more than the perpetrators.
I suppose it could be said from the above that at least here Nozick engages the mind and forces you to think. Which is more than I can have said for his magnum opus. But too much here that wasn't thought-provoking just plain dragged.
The Examined Life is a collection of essays concerning various topics from "Dying" to "The Matrix of Reality." I did find some interesting ideas and insights sprinkled throughout those parts I read, but I found him often too frustrating. Not in the sense of Anarchy, State and Utopia that it seemed abstruse, but I just didn't resonate with the philosophy he presented. So much seemed incoherent and wrong-headed to me. I disagreed with his delineation of romantic love in "Love's Bond." It made me think of Ayn Rand's parody of someone insisting they wanted to be loved for themself--but not for anything about them. If love means stripping the loved one of their identity, if you can't love a characteristic about them, what's left to love? Nozick tries to develop this idea of a unique constellation of characteristics but I didn't find the distinction helpful. Then there's "The Zig Zag of Politics" where he tried to walk back his argument for libertarianism. If I found his argument for libertarianism unconvincing, I found his argument against it incoherent and sloppy. His argument is that doing things through government, such as the welfare state "marks" those issues for importance. OK, so Sadaam Hussein was torturing his countrymen and perpetuating a police state. Does that mean that's an argument for us to make war? Anyone noticed how that worked out? Or our intervention in Vietnam? Or Libya. Of all the arguments I've heard for the welfare state, this was the lamest. Finally, one of the essays that made the biggest impression on me was "The Holocaust" where he states it "would not be a special tragedy if humankind ended." WTF? The whole reason the Holocaust was a tragedy was because of what it did to human beings. And sadly, I can't say I see it as a particular break with history. Larger in scope perhaps. But to claim for it more than that is to be sadly ignorant of history. And that argument to me felt like a slap at the victims even more than the perpetrators.
I suppose it could be said from the above that at least here Nozick engages the mind and forces you to think. Which is more than I can have said for his magnum opus. But too much here that wasn't thought-provoking just plain dragged.
February 21, 2016
Some remarks. The book did not deliver on my expectations. Admittedly, some chapters contain valuable insights and recommendations- I am especially attuned to Nozick's definition of an untimely death and the idea that when a substantial number of meaningful goals in life have been fulfilled and a comfortable old age has been reached, it would be fitting and noble to spend the last few years of one's life dedicating oneself to a noble and dangerous cause while taking risks that other, younger people might not dare to take. Also the chapter on Happiness is, though a little overbearing, interesting- it figures the account of the Experience Machine encountered in his earlier book AS&T.
But there are equally many chapters- such as: on God, the Holiness of Everyday Life (which Nozick discovers in the act of eating), Emotions and, very cryptically, "Being More Real"- that are either too technical in their argumentation, drawing distinctions upon distinctions of which the relevance eludes me, or contain starting points (what on earth is Being Real and who ever thinks of this?) that are too queer to be able to function as such. I won't go as far as to say they are devoid of clever observations (e.g. the opposition between depth and the experiencing of happy emotions), but they are sparse, poorly worked out, and caught up in a larger technical flurry of words.
If stripped down to only the interesting bits, a mere 1/3rd would remain.
But there are equally many chapters- such as: on God, the Holiness of Everyday Life (which Nozick discovers in the act of eating), Emotions and, very cryptically, "Being More Real"- that are either too technical in their argumentation, drawing distinctions upon distinctions of which the relevance eludes me, or contain starting points (what on earth is Being Real and who ever thinks of this?) that are too queer to be able to function as such. I won't go as far as to say they are devoid of clever observations (e.g. the opposition between depth and the experiencing of happy emotions), but they are sparse, poorly worked out, and caught up in a larger technical flurry of words.
If stripped down to only the interesting bits, a mere 1/3rd would remain.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2025
What I like about Nozick is that he is a philosopher who has a lot of fun. He is willing to reach odd conclusions and has a refreshing sense of humility. When his work becomes more esoteric, he lets you know, and gives you a chance to skip ahead. His work is a real breath of fresh air compared to some of his contemporaries.
More intense readers may be disappointed by a lack of substance in some areas, but the more casual Nozickian - and the average person - will get a lot out of this. There is, quite literally, something for everyone here.
More intense readers may be disappointed by a lack of substance in some areas, but the more casual Nozickian - and the average person - will get a lot out of this. There is, quite literally, something for everyone here.
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