The Good Life

by Yi-Fu Tuan

“[Tuan] explores answers to an old and unanswerable how should we live? . . . The Good Life is a little anthology of good feeling, touchstones of joy . . . These pleasures make the book a pleasure, not of conviction or belief, but of conversation’s meandering exploration.”—New York Times Book Review

“Tuan, after all, is one of the few geographers who can be read for pleasure, and by the public as well as by the professional. But read not merely for pleasure, nor yet to mark, learn, and inwardly digest. Rather, consider Tuan’s challenge to identify your concept of the good life, and then try to construct that life.”—Environment and Planning Society and Space

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Fu Tuan (Traditional Chinese: 段義孚, born 5 December 1930) is a Chinese-U.S. geographer.
Tuan was born in 1930 in Tientsin, China. He was the son of a rich oligarch and was part of the top class in the Republic of China. Tuan attended University College, London, but graduated from the University of Oxford with a B.A. and M.A. in 1951 and 1955 respectively. From there he went to California to continue his geographic education. He received his Ph.D. in 1957 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

One man's meditation on the definition of a good life. As such, it was inconclusive but implied that a liberal education would contribute to one. Aside from that, the author appeared to be a geologist with perhaps a minor in French literature. I was intrigued by his chapter on old age and that he basically called BS on the idea of old age as golden years, even exploring historical inaccuracies in regard to former times' idealized treatment of the elderly. Plus the quote from Schopenhauer that notes that the stance of always hoping can play a cruel trick on life. "Most people, if they glance back when they come to the end of life, will find all along they have been living ad interim: they will be surprised to find that the very thing they disregarded and let slip by unenjoyed, was just the life in the expectation of which they passed all their time." Also liked the reminder that the Greek thought ill of Hope. "Hope is the strength of the desperate in contrast with foresight which comes of reason," said Thucydides.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd book. The first three-quarters is a rambling, genial guide through different ideas of what constitutes the good life. Then it suddenly turns dark, almost astringent, as he proceeds to knock down all those fantasy structures, then make an argument that only in the pain and suffering of old age is one really prepared to face reality head-on, mostly the reality of the suffering one lives through in life, as well as the suffering one causes others. In his closing words, he almost, but not quite, comes down to a classical stoic view of what constitutes a good life.

He did briefly explore the idea that a person can curate their life, not in the sense of collecting experiences from some sort of bucket list, but in the sense that one can sort, arrange, and highlight the experiences that mean the most to them to form a picture of a good life. I would have liked to have seen this idea developed more.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the topic of this book was the topic of our first philosophy newsletter, I had to read it. I thouroughly enjoyed the introduction and the conclusion, but struggled through the overdone middle section with all of its anecdotes and examples (although I'm sure they were necessary for the purpose of argument). The reason for the four stars is that I really enjoyed his thesis of the book. Read it to find out what it is.