In Dear Friend, you must change your life, we see some of the most fascinating thinkers in history at their most private and profound, reaching out to a friend, sharing, testing, confirming discoveries about the complexity of life, how to rise above its hardships and enjoy its pleasures. We see writers embrace the roots of philosophical thought afresh, by grappling with real, lived experience, giving us unique insight into their ideas and worldviews that their more polished, public work often does not provide. We see artists sound the foundations of their artistic and moral integrity.
Ranging from Seneca and Marcus Aurelius to Flora Tristan and Walter Benjamin, to Elizabeth of Bohemia and Giacomo Leopardi, to Mahatma Gandhi and Maurice Béjart, we see how the philosophical letter as a form of thinking, and thinking freely, spans across the ages and often forms some of the most interesting and lively of philosophical writings.
Each letter is given a contextualising preface by an expert that brings out the reason this particular letter is a philosophical letter for life. As such, Dear Friend, you must change your life provides a unique introduction to an array of thinkers throughout history as well as an argument for philosophy as conversation, a conversation which has been ongoing for centuries.
Edited by:
Ada Bronowski
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Weight: 324g
ISBN: 9781350089198
ISBN 10: 1350089192
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 20 February 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Preface Chapter 1: Be Present!, Epicurus to Menoeceus, by Ada Bronowski Chapter 2: The Price of Time, Seneca to Lucilius, by Christelle Veillard Chapter 3: The Self-Punishing Student of a Doting Teacher, Marcus Aurelius to Fronto, by Ada Bronowski and Gweltaz Guyormac’h Chapter 4: A Philosophy for the Poor from a Cynical God, Kronos to the Poor by Lucian of Samosata, by Alberto Camerotto Chapter 5: Real Philosophy for Real People, René Descartes to Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, by Delphine Antoine-Mahut and Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin Chapter 6: Good Intentions and the Resistance of Reality, Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia’s reply to René Descartes, by Delphine Antoine-Mahut and Marie-Frédérique Pellegrin Chapter 7: The Green Carpet in Your Mind is Not In Your Mind, Anne Conway to Henry More, by Sarah Hutton Chapter 8: A Philosopher-Empress in a Revolutionary World, Catherine the Great to the Prince de Ligne, by Kelsey Rubin-Detlev Chapter 9: From Exile with Love, Germaine de Stael to Madame de Tessé, by Catriona Seth Chapter 10: Erotic Affinities, Winckelmann to Usteri, by Katherine Harloe Chapter 11: Rational Empiricism?, Schiller to Goethe by Dalia Nassar Chapter 12: ‘What then is Happiness, my dear friend?’, Leopardi to Jacopssen, by Luigi Capitano Chapter 13: A Philosophy of Love, Flora Tristan to Charles Fillieu, by Máire Fedelma Cross Chapter 14: Just the Magnificence of Reality, Thoreau to Blake, by Rick Anthony Furtak Chapter 15: De Profundis: A Philosophical Letter, Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas, by Stefano Evangelista Chapter 16: A Correspondence Theory of Truth, Mahatma Gandhi to Maganlal Gandhi, by Nicholas J. Owen Chapter 17: Dispelling the Tower of Fear, Rainer Maria Rilke to Lotte Hepner, by Charlie Louth Chapter 18: The Epic Side of Truth, Walter Benjamin to Gershom Scholem, by Daniela Helbig Chapter 19: ‘A Shit on a Pedestal’, Francois Truffaut to Jean-Luc Goddard, by Antoine de Baecque Chapter 20: A Philosophy of Dance, Maurice Béjart to Nahuelt, by Ada Bronowski bibliography index
Ada Bronowski is Lecturer in Philosophy at the New College of Humanities, London, UK.
