What do you want out of life? : a philosophical guide to figuring out what matters

What do you want out of life? A philosophical guide to figuring out what matters

Valerie Tiberius

Book - 2023

"Do you want to make a lot of money or do you want to work for justice? Do you want to run marathons or sing in a choir? Do you want to have children or travel the world? The things we care about in life - families, friendships, jobs, health, moral ideals, hobbies - tend to conflict with each other. Unresolvable conflicts make our lives worse, because they prevent us from doing what matters to us. Worse still, we don't always know what we really want, or how to define success. How can you resolve a problem you've barely identified? This is a book about how to live your own life well by identifying your values and resolving conflicts among your goals and between your goals and the world. It is a philosophical guide, rather tha...n a self-help book. There are no top ten lists for how to be happy or get rich quick, and no proclamations about what you should care about. Instead, philosopher Valerie Tiberius aims to provide readers a way of thinking about our goals that enables us to reflect on them in an effective way throughout our lives. This way of thinking is illustrated with examples that range from the silly to the serious, from shopping to navigating sexism. We'll also see that even if no one else can decide for us what matters in life, the other people in our lives have a profound influence on our goals and how we should pursue them. The best kind of reflection acknowledges the importance of our interconnectedness"--

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Subjects
Values.
Life.
Meaning (Philosophy)
Success.
Published
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press 2023.
Language
English
Main Author
Valerie Tiberius (author)
Physical Description
xx, 182 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780691240688
  • What we want and what stands in our way
  • What turtles, dogs, and people have in common
  • What are our values... and what should they be?
  • On strawberries and safety: or, how to resolve conflicts
  • Values in an unfair culture
  • When all else fails
  • The value of others
  • Fulfilling our values... morally.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This accessible guide by philosophy professor Tiberius (Well-Being as Value Fulfillment) ponders "how we should think through our choices, goals, and values in the face of continual change." Tiberius encourages readers to interrogate why they have the principles they do and suggests one gains clarity by introspecting, imagining their ideal future, or examining what activities make them happy in a similar way to how researchers interpret lab rats' responses to stimuli. Life goals often clash, she warns, as when the desire to advance one's career comes at the cost of spending time with loved ones, and she offers strategies to resolve such conflicts: prioritize between goals, give up one of them, or reinterpret what achieving those goals looks like. Tiberius convincingly maintains that though the self-reflective capacity of the human mind may seem like a burden, it is a blessing because, unlike other animals, humans are able to change what matters to them and how. Her plain-language approach grounds the philosophical advice, as do the author's lighthearted personal examples, one of which highlights competing values by describing how the author's love of cheesecake runs counter to the value she places in her physical health. Entertaining and smart, this is philosophy for people who don't usually like philosophy. (Jan.)

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