Philosophical Consolation -- The Series of Works by Alain de Botton

Author: (British) Alain de Botton, translated by Zhi Zhongyun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The Consolation of Philosophy selects six philosophers—Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Among these six, there are serene and introspective sages, worldly and practical life guides, as well as strong, impulsive figures with a poetic temperament, embodying the will to life. De Botton’s choice of handling is quite thoughtful. Chinese people, especially traditional Chinese intellectuals, have always sought a balance of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in their lives. In De Botton’s book, can we also see this tendency toward balance? Philosophers, especially those renowned for their systematic completeness, such as Hegel, often seem distant to ordinary people. But in De Botton’s view, true philosophy should not be detached from ordinary people and their secular lives, nor should it merely focus on clarifying abstract philosophical definitions. It should not just propose meaningless hypotheses while ignoring crucial questions about how people can live better. The author is British, yet none of the prominent British and American philosophers of the 20th century, such as Russell, Whitehead, and Ayer, were included in the book. This somewhat reveals the author’s critique of 20th-century Anglo-American philosophy. Russell and Whitehead both sought to reduce abstract speculation to mathematics, while Ayer more directly believed that philosophy is a closed system, unrelated to real life. In this way, their philosophy probably cannot offer any solace for human existence. No wonder De Botton, who pays close attention to the current state of human existence, excludes them from The Consolation of Philosophy. Despite the vast differences among thinkers called philosophers throughout history, it is still possible to find a small group of people with slightly similar appearances across centuries, united by their loyalty to the original Greek meaning of the word "philosophy"—"love of wisdom." Their shared interest is to offer comforting and practical words about the root causes of life’s greatest pains; their shared spirit is to refuse to bow to the secular world and to persist in independent thinking. With his distinctive British style, De Botton guides us on a relaxed philosophical journey, elegant and beautiful, helping us approach the spiritual worlds of great thinkers like Socrates, Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. We discover that the sorrows, hardships, and worries caused by life’s desires can all find solace in their wisdom.