The first English translation of the prize winning Dutch title Leven is Een Kunst, this is a fascinating book, in which prominent ethicist and Nietzsche specialist Paul van Tongeren creates a contemporary version of classical virtue ethics. Virtue ethics goes right back to the moral philosophy of Aristotle and some could argue is nothing new. However, Van Tongeren demonstrates how the original Artistotlean approach been extended and corrected throughout the centuries by the Stoics, Christianity, and Nietzsche and how we now need new kind of ethics - a creative, artful ethics that takes seriously the desire to 'live well'. Acting as both a brilliantly clear introduction to virtue ethics and moral philosophy and a serious work of original philosophy, this book connects philosophy with real lived experience and tackles, head-on, the perennial philosophical question: how do we live well?

Paul van Tongeren's highly readable book not only updates MacIntyre's After Virtue by putting it in dialogue with new and different thinkers, it also recalls its predecessor's philosophical ambition and impressive breadth of reference. One of its key accomplishments is to bring together virtue ethics with philosophy as a way of life. Anglophone readers will particularly benefit from the author's attention to Dutch and German exponents of the ethics of self-cultivation. Students of Aristotle and Nietzsche will also find much here to think over. It deserves to be widely read, enjoyed, and debated.

Vorwort
The first English translation of Leven is Een Kunst, an absorbing book in which the prominent ethicist and Nietzsche specialist Paul van Tongeren proposes a new form of ethics as an art of living

Autorentext
Thomas Heij studied philosophy at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and works as editor at the Nexus Institute.

Klappentext

In this first English translation of the prize-winning Dutch title Leven is Een Kunst, Paul van Tongeren creates a new kind of virtue ethics, one that centres on how to 'live well' in our contemporary world. While virtue ethics is based on the moral philosophy of Aristotle, it has had many interpretations and iterations throughout history and features prominently in the thinking of the Stoics, Christian narratives and the writings of Nietzsche. The Art of Living Well explores and expands upon these traditions, using them as a basis to form a new interpretation; one that foregrounds art and creativity as paramount to the struggle to act in an authentic and moral way. Acting as both a clear introduction to virtue ethics and moral philosophy and a serious work of original philosophy, this book connects philosophy with real lived experience and tackles, head-on, the perennial philosophical question: 'how do we live well?'

Inhalt

INTRODUCTION

Art

I. ETHICS AND MEANING

Attention

II HERMENEUTICS AND EXPERIENCE

Relations

III VIRTUE AND PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

Love

IV GREEK AND CHRISTIAN

Patience

V NIETZSCHE AND/OR ARISTOTLE

Shame

VI VIRTUE ETHICS IN A DISENCHANTED WORLD

Aphorisms