ABOUT THIS BOOK

This volume asks poignant questions about what it means to be alive and inhabit the present.

Living holds us between two places. It expresses what is most elementary—to be alive—and the absoluteness of our aspiration—finally living! But could we desire anything other than to live? In The Philosophy of Living, François Jullien meditates on Far Eastern thought and philosophy to analyze concepts that can be folded into a complete philosophy of living, including the idea of the moment, the ambiguity of the in-between, and what he calls the “transparency of morning.” Jullien here develops a strategy of living that goes beyond morality and dwells in the space between health and spirituality.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

François Jullien is professor at Université Paris Diderot, a member of the Institut universitaire de France, and director of the Institut de la pensée contemporaine. Krzysztof Fijalkowski is a senior lecturer in critical studies at the University of the Arts. Michael Richardson is a writer and translator. Together, Fijalkowski and Richardson have translated leading French-language authors.

REVIEWS

“In his excellent book, The Philosophy of Living, Jullien gives us another in depth meditation on Eastern philosophy that offers a guide on how to finally live. As human beings we are caught in the ambiguity of the in-between. We are alive but need to learn how to finally live. . . . One we learn how to finally live, we can reach what Jullien calls ‘the transparency of the morning.’ I highly recommend this book. It is a perfect text to use any meaning of life class.”

— Mark Zlomislic, Metapsychology Online Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. While Present They Are Absent
2. The Evidence and the Withdrawal
3. The Entrance of Life
4. To Enter into a Philosophy of Living
5. The Transparency of the Morning

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements