The School of Life

Christopher Hamilton

No matter how insulated we are by wealth or friends we can all expect to undergo some form of loss, failure or disappointment. The common reaction is to bear it as best we can - some do this better than others - and move on with life. Christopher Hamilton proposes a different response to adversity. Focusing on the arenas of family, love, illness and death, he explores constructive ways to deal with adversity and embrace it to derive unique insight into our condition. Offering examples from history, literature and science, he suggests how we might recognize it as a precious source of enlightenment, shaping our very existence. One in the new series of books from The School of Life, launched January 2014: How to Age by Anne Karpf How to Develop Emotional Health by Oliver James How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland How to Deal with Adversity by Christopher Hamilton How to Think About Exercise by Damon Young How to Connect with Nature by Tristan Gooley

How to Deal with Adversity

Middle age

Middle age, for many, marks a key period for a radical reappraisal of one's life and way of living. This book explores the moods, emotions and experiences of middle age in the contemporary world, seeking to describe and analyze that period of life philosophically. It is suitable for those heading for a 'mid-life crisis'.

Middle Age

Sosem lehetünk felkészülve a veszteségekre, kudarcra vagy csalódásra. Christopher Hamilton vallásfilozófus könyve azonban megmutatja, miként nézzünk szembe ezekkel, amikor mégis bekövetkeznek. Történelmi, filozófiai és irodalmi példákkal illusztrálja, milyen megpróbáltatásokat rejt a családi élet, a szerelem, a barátság, a betegség és a halál közelsége. Ismerteti a leghatékonyabb megküzdési stratégiákat, és arra biztat, hogy a nehézségeket inkább a megvilágosító felismerések bőséges tárházának tekintsük, melyek gazdagítják életünket.

Hogyan küzdjünk meg az élet nehézségeivel?

Otto Neumaier

Clemens Sedmak

Gottfried Schweiger

The essays in this volume grew out of the reflections and discussions conducted during the second international conference "Impulses from Salzburg" from May 6 to 9, 2008, on "Facing Tragedies". In accordance with the aims of this project, participants were asked to reflect not simply on the nature and meaning of tragedy but also on ways in which those who are the victims of tragedy make sense of, or cope with, their condition. It was recognised that abstract reflection is important in this regard, but also that such reflection must be rooted in ordinary, everyday. experience, and thus the conference had as one of its aims the attempt to ensure that philosophical reflection not lose the moorings it needs in the reality of ordinary life.

Facing Tragedies

This book, taking its point of departure from Stanley Cavell’s claim that philosophy and autobiography are dimensions of each other, aims to explore some of the relations between these forms of reflection, first by seeking to develop an outline of a philosophy of autobiography, and then by exploring the issue from the side of five autobiographical works. Christopher Hamilton argues in the volume that there are good reasons for thinking that philosophical texts can be considered autobiographical, and then turns to discuss the autobiographies of Walter Benjamin, Peter Weiss, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Orwell, Edmund Gosse and Albert Camus. In discussing these works, Hamilton explores how they put into question certain received understandings of what philosophical texts suppose themselves to be doing, and also how they themselves constitute philosophical explorations of certain key issues, e.g. the self, death, religious and ethical consciousness, sensuality, the body. Throughout, there is an exploration of the ways in which autobiographies help us in thinking about self-knowledge and knowledge of others. A final chapter raises some issues concerning the fact that the five autobiographies discussed here are all texts dealing with childhood.

Reflections on Truth, Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of Others

Philosophy and Autobiography

Middle age, for many, marks a key period for a radical reappraisal of one's life and way of living. The sense of time running out, both from the perspective that one's life has ground to a halt, and from the point of view of the greater closeness of death, and the sense of loneliness engendered by the compromised and wasteful nature of life, become ever clearer in mid-life, and can lead to a period of dramatic self doubt.In this book, the philosopher Christopher Hamilton (early 40s) explores the moods, emotions and experiences of middle age in the contemporary world, seeking to describe and analyze that period of life philosophically. Hamilton draws on his own personal experiences of turning 40 as well as a wide range of sources - from the philosophical writings of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hegel, Heidegger to the literature of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Conrad and the films of Woody Allen - to offer us a philosophy of middle age.Some of the many fascinating themes explored include the strong sense of nostalgia experienced in mid-life, of loss for one's youth, and of regret, the sense that life has become boring, the recognition that one can never fully escape feelings of guilt, and - central to the experience of middle age - the question of what is the point of going on at all. In the light of the 'melancholy wisdom' of mid-life Hamilton suggests that pleasure becomes much more important than at previous stages of life and he shows that the enjoyment of pleasure can be something noble.Insightful, entertaining, and thought-provoking, "Middle Age" is fascinating reading and for anyone heading for a 'mid-life crisis' it is much cheaper than buying a sports car.

Christopher Hamilton

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