▲台大哲學系上課用書 ▲2015年Hiett人文獎得獎作品 ▌書籍簡介 Sometimes it seems like you need a PhD just to open a book of philosophy. We leave philosophical matters to the philosophers in the same way that we leave science to scientists. Scott Samuelson thinks this is tragic, for our lives as well as for philosophy. In The Deepest Human Life he takes philosophy back from the specialists and restores it to its proper place at the center of our humanity, rediscovering it as our most profound effort toward understanding, as a way of life that anyone can live. Exploring the works of some of history’s most important thinkers in the context of the everyday struggles of his students, he guides us through the most vexing quandaries of our existence—and shows just how enriching the examined life can be. Samuelson begins at the beginning: with Socrates, working his most famous assertion—that wisdom is knowing that one knows nothing—into a method, a way of approaching our greatest mysteries. From there he springboards into a rich history of philosophy and the ways its journey is encoded in our own quests for meaning. He ruminates on Epicurus against the sonic backdrop of crickets and restaurant goers in Iowa City. He follows the Stoics into the cell where James Stockdale spent seven years as a prisoner of war. He spins with al-Ghazali first in doubt, then in the ecstasy of the divine. And he gets the philosophy education of his life when one of his students, who authorized a risky surgery for her son that inadvertently led to his death, asks with tears in her eyes if Kant was right, if it really is the motive that matters and not the consequences. Through heartbreaking stories, humanizing biographies, accessible theory, and evocative interludes like “On Wine and Bicycles” or “On Zombies and Superheroes ,” he invests philosophy with the personal and vice versa. The result is a book that is at once a primer and a reassurance—that the most important questions endure, coming to life in each of us. ★★ 哲學不只是思考遊戲,而是在人生的困惑和抉擇中尋找意義。★★ 一門社區大學的哲學課,一位在哲學中獲得救贖的老師,來自各行各業的學生,各式苦樂人生,都是一場又一場的哲學旅程。因為研讀柏拉圖的作品,撲克臉的工廠工人拾回面對生活試煉的力量。透過豪爾沃斯的觀點,充滿熱忱的護士思索出工作的意義。在康德的道德哲學中,失去兒子的母親找到內心悲傷的出口。接觸了伊比鳩魯主義與斯多噶主義,罹患罕見疾病的女子重燃對生命的熱情。 我們經常以為只有哲學博士才有辦法打開一本哲學作品來看,把哲學問題統統丟給哲學家,就像我們把科學丟給科學家一樣。本書作者史考特‧薩繆森認為這是個悲劇,無論是對於我們的生活或是對哲學家而言。《在生命最深處遇見哲學》裡,他把哲學從教授專家手中拿回來,擺在人性中心的位置,那是我們最深刻的人生探索,是任何人都可以過的生活。 全書哲學的開端講起,從他與學生們在課堂上的互動為背景,描述他們如何努力奮鬥,克服日常生活的障礙,並從中探究歷史上重要哲學家的觀點與經典哲學作品如何呼應現實。當難以應付的考驗接踵而來,我們才發現,原以為只存在學術殿堂的思想,早已為一切提供了解釋。 ▌作者簡介 Scott Samuelson(史考特‧薩繆森) 我第一次愛上哲學,是十六歲時接觸到聖多瑪斯的五路論證。雖然我讀得一頭霧水,卻很清楚聖人以陌生、精確、歡躍的散文要說的東西,正是我一生要做的事。十年後,我在艾墨里大學(Emory University)完成博士學位,我太太跟我說她懷孕了,我才驀然發現我不想像狄奧根尼一樣睡在木桶裡,沿街乞討。(有一次有人問他為什麼向神像乞討,他說他要習慣被拒絕的感覺。當然,他沒有結婚。)雖然我很喜歡學者的工作,卻不偏好把精力浪費在微觀的專業上,逢迎拍馬以得到終身教職。我母親來電告訴我,我家附近的柯克伍德社區大學(Kirkwood Community College)有職缺,於我想,那樣的工作或許讓我可以自由思考和寫作。我在此處的發現,使我從教義的昏睡中醒來。當然,那裡有許多隨波逐流的學生,但是也有護士、更生人、軍人、有抱負的復健師、社會適應不良的人,以及許多相信哲學可以改變他們的生活的人。我在寫作《在生命最深處遇見哲學》時,心裡是想著他們的。 ISBN: 9780226272771