Sick Souls, Healthy Minds, John Kaag
Sick Souls, Healthy Minds, John Kaag
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Sick Souls, Healthy Minds
How William James Can Save Your Life

Author: John Kaag

Narrator: Daniel Henning

Unabridged: 4 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/17/2020


Synopsis

From the celebrated author of American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche, a compelling introduction to the life-affirming philosophy of William James

In 1895, William James, the father of American philosophy, delivered a lecture entitled "Is Life Worth Living?" It was no theoretical question for James, who had contemplated suicide during an existential crisis as a young man a quarter century earlier. Indeed, as John Kaag writes, "James's entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life"?and that's why it just might be able to save yours, too. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds is a compelling introduction to James's life and thought that shows why the founder of pragmatism and empirical psychology?and an inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous?can still speak so directly and profoundly to anyone struggling to make a life worth living.

Kaag tells how James's experiences as one of what he called the "sick-souled," those who think that life might be meaningless, drove him to articulate an ideal of "healthy-mindedness"?an attitude toward life that is open, active, and hopeful, but also realistic about its risks. In fact, all of James's pragmatism, resting on the idea that truth should be judged by its practical consequences for our lives, is a response to, and possible antidote for, crises of meaning that threaten to undo many of us at one time or another. Along the way, Kaag also movingly describes how his own life has been endlessly enriched by James.

Eloquent, inspiring, and filled with insight, Sick Souls, Healthy Minds may be the smartest and most important self-help book you'll ever read.

About John Kaag

John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of Idealism, Pragmatism, and Feminism and Thinking through the Imagination: Aesthetics in Human Cognition. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other publications.


Reviews

اول از همه بگم که این کتاب رو به علاقه‌مندان فلسفه توصیه میکنم. پُرگویی‌های نویسنده در مورد تجربیات خودش در این کتاب، موجب می‌شد که یجاهایی واقعا کسل‌کننده پیش بره. من دوسداشتم از اول تا اخر فقط از فلسفه‌ی جیمز بخونم. قسمت‌هایی از کتاب که فلسفه‌ی عمل‌گرایی جیمز رو توصیف کرده بود واقع برام لذت بخش بود......more

Goodreads review by Ryan

Is life worth living? If you are a “sick soul” (using William James’s terminology) the best you can hope to say is, “maybe.” Sick souls are predisposed to focusing on the negative aspects of life and suffer with a temperament that leads to bouts of depression and existential dread. This was certainl......more

I happen to love William James, the father of American Psychology, but I had no idea that he battled debilitating depression nearly his whole life which I find wholly intriguing. While I am still struggling to figure out the connection between the title, though, alongside the author’s hopscotch over......more

Goodreads review by Amir

امتیاز دقیق‌تر:۳.۵ -- اولین بار کتاب رو از مصطفی ملکیان در یکی از سخنرانی‌هاش شنیدم.توصیه کرد جان‌های بیمار سراغ این کتاب برن. کتاب رو خریدم و فکر کردم بذارمش برای وقتی که حالم خوب نیست تا بیماری جان رو باهاش درمان کنم و گزینه‌ی خودکشی رو از روی میز بردارم:)) -- جان کاگ سعی می‌کنه نشون بده که ویلیام جیم......more