Imagining the End
Mourning and Ethical Life
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction
A Chronicle of Higher Education Best Scholarly Book
“A deeply insightful and thought-enriching work by one of the most original philosophers writing today. Imagining the End is acutely aware of the danger we stand in of finding ourselves on an uninhabitable planet. But Lear is also aware of how the consciousness of impending loss can bring out the illumination inherent in meaningful life, often occluded in day-to-day living.”
–Charles Taylor, author of A Secular Age
“Lear is a lovely and subtle writer, someone who has a rare capacity to introduce ways of seeing and interrogating the world that dignify our confusion and pain while also opening up new possibilities for moving forward.”–Daniel Oppenheimer, Washington Post
The range of Jonathan Lear’s abilities—as a philosopher and psychoanalyst who draws from ancient and modern thought, personal history, and everyday experience to help us think about how we can flourish in a world of flux and finitude—is on full display in Imagining the End. Lear masterfully explores how we respond to loss, crisis, and hope, considering our bewilderment in the face of planetary catastrophe. He examines the role of the humanities in expanding our imaginative and emotional repertoire.
How might we live, he asks, when we realize just how vulnerable the cultures to which we traditionally turn for solace might be? He addresses how mourning can help us thrive, the role of moral exemplars in shaping our sense of the good, and the place of gratitude in human life. Along the way, he touches on figures as diverse as Aristotle, Abraham Lincoln, Sigmund Freud, and the British royals Harry and Meghan. Written with Lear’s characteristic elegance, philosophical depth, and psychological perceptiveness, Imagining the End is a powerful meditation on persistence in an age of turbulence and anxiety.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
University of Chicago philosophy professor Lear (Therapeutic Action) offers provocative reflections on flourishing in the face of existential and civilizational challenges. Drawing on psychoanalysis, American history, and ancient Greek philosophy, the author strings together loosely related musings that grapple with the finitude of life and culture. He contends that passing down tradition through generations constitutes a form of mourning because it keeps alive the ideas and concerns of the dead, and he posits that Meghan Markle's decision to leave the royal family indicated her dissatisfaction with the dearth of choices afforded by the royal lineage. In a highly original chapter, Lear considers the ethical legacy of Lincoln's Gettysburg address and suggests that not having mourned the Confederate dead left postwar reconciliation unfinished. He writes that while the Lost Cause "keeps one stuck," mourning "is for the sake of bidding adieu and returning to life." Jargon sometimes obscures Lear's subtle reasoning, particularly in his exploration of Freud's views on transience, but those who stick with this will be rewarded. Elegiac if a touch abstruse, this will most benefit scholars.
