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Published Dec 2011
304 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
French superstar philosopher Luc Ferry encapsulates an enlightening treatise of pop-philosophy in a lively narrative of Western thought - explaining how the history of philosophy can teach us how to live better lives today. This blockbuster better living guide has already sold nearly a half a million copies in Europe; now it is available worldwide in an exciting, highly readable translation: A Brief History of Thought. Thomas Cathcut & Daniel Klein, authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, call Ferry's thrilling opus "a fine introduction to philosophy and its fundamental relevance to living a meaningful life - for everyone from the man in the Acropolis to the man in the street."
Paperback original
"Starred Review. Neophytes and scholars alike will find in this superb primer proof that philosophy belongs at the center of life." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. No dry academic, Ferry restores to philosophy a compelling urgency." - Booklist
"A focused history, neither simple nor simplistic, that - no surprise - shows the history of philosophy moving inexorably toward the author's current beliefs." - Kirkus Reviews
"All of this - Mr. Ferry's perch in the clouds, his existential preoccupations, his reflexive hostility to the market - makes it tempting to resort to familiar caricatures of the French intellectual. But it would be a mistake to think of Mr. Ferry as just another scribbler in a Left Bank café. What redeems his account is his own openness, energy and charm as a teacher, qualities that burst through on every page. However difficult the questions he poses, his eagerness to find answers, to justify philosophy as a way of life, is infectious." - Wall Street Journal
"This is a vital book. Luc Ferry rehabilitates the ancient question, 'What is the best way of life?' as though our lives depended on it. ...The reader will find her own experience clarified, and her horizon enlarged." - Matthew B. Crawford, New York Times bestselling author of Shop Class as Soulcraft
"A philosophical survival kit, in which the reader will find brilliant ideas to help them think better and live better." - L'express
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Luc Ferry, born January 1, 1951 in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine (France) is a philosopher and a notable proponent of Secular Humanism. He is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank. He received an Agrégation de philosophie (1975), a Doctorat d'Etat en science politique (1981), and an Agrégation de science politique (1982). As a Professor of political science and political philosophy, Luc Ferry taught at the Institut d'études politiques de Lyon (1982–1988) - during which time he also taught and directed graduate research at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University - and at Caen University (1989–96) and Paris Diderot University (since 1996). From 2002 until 2004 he served as the Minister of Education on the cabinet led by the conservative Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. During his tenure, he was the minister in charge of the implementation of the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. He received the award of Docteur honoris causa from the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada).
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