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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
| Original language | |
| English | |
THIS BEAUTY
A Philosophy of Being Alive
This is a rousing call from an acclaimed philosopher and former pro skater to live life to its fullest that will take readers on a journey that is world-expanding and deeply moving.
This Beauty is the first book to philosophically explore 'existential imperatives', phrases like carpe diem, live in the now, and you only live once. A unique blend of memoir, essay, and philosophy, the book offers an original defense of the view that aesthetic value is what makes life worth living, it will appeal to readers of popular philosophy examining what makes life good, including Ryan Holiday's Stillness Is the Key, Jim Holt's When Einstein Walked with Gödel, and Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing.
Say you are afraid of heights. Very afraid. And say your friend is pressuring you to go sky diving with them. You're wavering, and they deliver a rousing speech about taking the opportunities you're offered. They tell you, Come on, you only live once! You relent. Why?
In This Beauty, philosopher Nick Riggle investigates the things we say to inspire each other and ourselves. Riggle calls them existential imperatives, and they present a conundrum. Their meanings are at best vague, at worst stupid. They're as likely to encourage you to ride down a steep hill in a shopping cart as to marry the love of your life. They imply that you should do something wild with your life because your life is precious, which is a little like saying you should go swimming with your grandfather's watch because it is irreplaceable.
And yet these exhortations can't help but be profound. We didn't choose to live this life, in this body, in these conditions. But when we consider the thought that we have only one life, that time is fleeting, or that we might die tomorrow, we often feel a tinge of inspiration, a sense of urgency. We want to embrace the life we were unwittingly given. Drawing on insights from his field of aesthetics and from his own experiences as a professional skater, an academic, and a new father, Riggle considers how they force us to confront what it means to live a worthwhile life. Existential imperatives shock us out of our predictable lives, he argues, and remind us that we aren't bound to the same thing every day, forever.
Insightful and deeply humane, This Beauty offers a personal and searching inquiry into the mystery of life's beauty.
Nick Riggle is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego. He received his PhD from NYU, where he was awarded both Mellon and MacCracken fellowships. His research broadly covers aesthetics, ethics, and social philosophy. The author of On Being Awesome, he regularly lectures at top philosophy departments internationally. His work has been published in McSweeney's, Aeon, and Hyperallergic, among other outlets. He lives in San Diego, CA.
Say you are afraid of heights. Very afraid. And say your friend is pressuring you to go sky diving with them. You're wavering, and they deliver a rousing speech about taking the opportunities you're offered. They tell you, Come on, you only live once! You relent. Why?
In This Beauty, philosopher Nick Riggle investigates the things we say to inspire each other and ourselves. Riggle calls them existential imperatives, and they present a conundrum. Their meanings are at best vague, at worst stupid. They're as likely to encourage you to ride down a steep hill in a shopping cart as to marry the love of your life. They imply that you should do something wild with your life because your life is precious, which is a little like saying you should go swimming with your grandfather's watch because it is irreplaceable.
And yet these exhortations can't help but be profound. We didn't choose to live this life, in this body, in these conditions. But when we consider the thought that we have only one life, that time is fleeting, or that we might die tomorrow, we often feel a tinge of inspiration, a sense of urgency. We want to embrace the life we were unwittingly given. Drawing on insights from his field of aesthetics and from his own experiences as a professional skater, an academic, and a new father, Riggle considers how they force us to confront what it means to live a worthwhile life. Existential imperatives shock us out of our predictable lives, he argues, and remind us that we aren't bound to the same thing every day, forever.
Insightful and deeply humane, This Beauty offers a personal and searching inquiry into the mystery of life's beauty.
Nick Riggle is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego. He received his PhD from NYU, where he was awarded both Mellon and MacCracken fellowships. His research broadly covers aesthetics, ethics, and social philosophy. The author of On Being Awesome, he regularly lectures at top philosophy departments internationally. His work has been published in McSweeney's, Aeon, and Hyperallergic, among other outlets. He lives in San Diego, CA.
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Book
Published 2022-12-01 by Basic Books |