Cottingham on Happiness & de Botton on Work

Plenty of recently published "philosophy" is hard to recommend for a variety of reasons. Some of it is impenetrable to the lay-reader. Much of it is impenetrable to the philosophically trained reader. But thankfully, essays and books emerge from time to time that are thought provoking and accessible.

I recently came across a short piece by the English philosopher John Cottingham which suggests achievement, virtuous development and transcendence as substantive elements of human happiness. Cottingham's essay outlines a useful framework for further discussion and, as a comment following the post rightly puts it, the piece 'reads like poetry'.





Alain de Botton's new book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work moves high on my summer reading list thanks to this excellent interview on the Monocle site.


Listening to de Botton talk about his research made me want to head back to London and take a few classes at the School of Life....