Creating the Good Life
Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness
-
- USD 15.99
-
- USD 15.99
Descripción editorial
Professionals and business people in midlife are increasingly asking themselves "what's next?" in their careers and personal lives. Creating the Good Life draws on the wisdom of the ages to help contemporary men and women plan for satisfying, useful, moral, and meaningful second halves of their lives.
For centuries, the brightest people in Western societies have looked to Aristotle for guidance on how to lead a good life and how to create a good society. Now James O'Toole--the Mortimer J. Adler Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute--translates that classical philosophical framework into practical, comprehensible terms to help professionals and business people apply it to their own lives and work. His book helps thoughtful readers address some of the profound questions they are currently struggling with in planning their futures:
• How do I find meaning and satisfaction?
• How much money do I need in order to be happy?
• What is the right balance between work, family, and leisure?
• What are my responsibilities to my community?
• How can I create a good society in my own company?
Bridging philosophy and self-help, O'Toole's book shows how happiness ultimately is attainable no matter one's level of income, if one uses Aristotle's practical exercises to ask the right questions and to discipline oneself to pursue things that are "good for us." The book is the basis for O'Toole's new "Good Life" seminar, where thoughtful men and women gather to create robust and satisfying life plans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
To adopt O'Toole's own categories, this is a self-help book not for the many but for the rest of us those willing to expend intellectual and emotional discipline in planning a life to fulfill one's potential: the true source of happiness, according to the author. O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute and author of more than a dozen books, confesses to having hungered in vain after literary stardom. Prompted by this disappointment to reconsider his life path, O'Toole began to ponder the relationship between happiness and success, and in this chatty, stimulating and at times gossipy self-help guide for professionals and business people, he shares his findings. Turning to Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, he finds that the ancient philosopher forces one to ask oneself tough questions and to abandon youthful fantasies about money, power and fame. O'Toole goes on to critique in Aristotelian terms the values, life choices and deeds of prominent "successful" Americans, including Rudolph Giuliani, Bill Gates, Silicon Valley legend Jim Clark, high-tech entrepreneur Larry Ellison and numerous leading CEOs. He discusses what he casts as the immaturity of Bill Clinton and praises the "truest Aristotelian" he knows a former high school chum who abandoned a business career to mentor 29 underprivileged children. O'Toole's dogged application of Aristotelian principles to the business world is thought provoking and engaging.
