One of this century’s most original philosophical thinkers, Nozick brilliantly renews Socrates’s quest to uncover the life that is worth living. In brave and moving meditations on love, creativity, happiness, sexuality, parents and children, the Holocaust, religious faith, politics, and wisdom, The Examined Life brings philosophy back to its preeminent subject, the things that matter most.
We join in Nozick’s reflections, weighing our experiences and judgments alongside those of past thinkers, to embark upon our own voyages of understanding and change.
Editorial Reviews
"[Nozick is] one of the most provocative and stimulating of modern thinkers." --The New York Times Book Review
"Imagine...an extraordinarily intelligent friend, curious and witty, appallingly well-read, who drops by after dinner...[to] talk deep into the night about things you care about. That's what reading The Examined Life is like." --Reason
"Nozick here offers an illuminating discussion of such topics as death, sexuality, and friendship--concerns that everyone has but that have not often been discussed by analytic philosophers, among whom Nozick holds eminent rank. His consideration of broader questions--e.g., what is the nature of value?--leads him to extend the theory of value he developed in Philosophical Explanations, and he unifies a wide range of phenomena that previous philosophers have been unable to connect as tightly. He also addresses theological concerns, throwing unexpected light on such topics as the nature of God and the problem of evil. Chapter 25, 'The Zig-Zag of Politics,' will without doubt rivet political philosophers, for here Nozick recants in part the libertarianism he supported in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. This strikingly original book will arouse much discussion. Highly recommended." --David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio, Library Journal
"A voyage of self-exploration...courageous, convincing, enthralling." --Anthony Storr, The Washington Post Book World
About the Author
Robert Nozick (1938-2002) is the author of Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which won a National Book Award in 1975, Philosophical Explanations, which received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa in 1982, and The Examined Life. He was the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.
