Philosophy of Practical Affairs : An Introduction

This book addresses the problems of everyday life faced by twenty-first-century individuals and explores practical questions central to philosophy of life: What is a good life? What makes a life good or satisfactory? What is the proper aim of life?

The Philosophy of Practical Affairs: An Introduction addresses the problems of everyday life, problems that from time to time fate drops on normal twenty-first-century western individuals. Addressing both students and philosophers, Joseph Agassi considers the usefulness of the treatment of daily problems within academic philosophy, including rationalism and fundamental issues of practical wisdom, the community, and the individual’s relationship to community. Unlike most philosophy-of-life literatures from pop-philosophy—especially religious homilies or wisdom literature, including the (pseudo-)cabbalist or (pseudo-)Buddhist, and their like—the book acknowledges real, disturbing situations. Warning the reader against various kinds of intellectual dishonesty, and committed to their rational autonomy, the author thinks through philosophical concepts that are in the end practical issues of philosophy of life.