| Description |
1 online resource (273 pages) |
| Contents |
Prologue -- In a fallen world -- The ruins of political failure -- Winners and losers -- The ultimate failure -- Epilogue |
| Summary |
"Squarely challenging a culture obsessed with success, an acclaimed philosopher argues that failure is vital to a life well lived, curing us of arrogance and self-deception and engendering humility instead. In Praise of Failure explores several arenas of failure, from the social and political to the spiritual and biological. It begins by examining the defiant choices of the French mystic Simone Weil, who, in sympathy with exploited workers, took up factory jobs that her frail body could not sustain. From there we turn to Mahatma Gandhi, whose punishing quest for purity drove him to ever more extreme acts of self-abnegation. Next we meet the self-styled loser E. M. Cioran, who deliberately turned his back on social acceptability, and Yukio Mishima, who reveled in a distinctly Japanese preoccupation with the noble failure, before looking to Seneca to tease out the ingredients of a good life. Gleefully breaching the boundaries between argument and storytelling, scholarship and spiritual quest, Bradatan concludes that while success can make us shallow, our failures can lead us to humbler, more attentive, and better lived lives. We can do without success, but we are much poorer without the gifts of failure."-- Provided by publisher |
| Analysis |
EM Cioran |
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Mahatma Gandhi |
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Seneca |
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Simone Weil |
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Yukio Mishima |
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failure |
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humility |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Costica Bradatan is Professor of Humanities in the Honors College at Texas Tech University and Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland in Australia |
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In English |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Weil, Simone, 1909-1943.
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Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D.
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Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948.
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Cioran, E. M. (Emile M.), 1911-1995.
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Mishima, Yukio, 1925-1970.
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| SUBJECT |
Cioran, E. M. (Emile M.), 1911-1995 fast |
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Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948 fast |
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Mishima, Yukio, 1925-1970 fast |
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Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D. fast |
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Weil, Simone, 1909-1943 fast |
| Subject |
Failure (Psychology)
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Humility.
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PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
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Failure (Psychology)
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Humility
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780674287365 |
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0674287363 |
|
9780674287358 |
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0674287355 |
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