Perpetual Euphoria

Perpetual Euphoria Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Perpetual Euphoria book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

Perpetual Euphoria

Pascal Bruckner
Perpetual Euphoria Book PDF

Author : Pascal Bruckner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020-03-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691204031

Get Book

Perpetual Euphoria by Pascal Bruckner Pdf

How happiness became mandatory—and why we should reject the demand to "be happy" Happiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty. To fail to be happy is to fail utterly. Happiness has become a religion—one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasn't yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment—the right to pursue happiness—become the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we become unhappy about not being happy—and what might we do to escape this predicament? In Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions with all his unconventional wit, force, and brilliance, arguing that we might be happier if we simply abandoned our mad pursuit of happiness. Gripped by the twin illusions that we are responsible for being happy or unhappy and that happiness can be produced by effort, many of us are now martyring ourselves—sacrificing our time, fortunes, health, and peace of mind—in the hope of entering an earthly paradise. Much better, Bruckner argues, would be to accept that happiness is an unbidden and fragile gift that arrives only by grace and luck. A stimulating and entertaining meditation on the unhappiness at the heart of the modern cult of happiness, Perpetual Euphoria is a book for everyone who has ever bristled at the command to "be happy."

A Brief Eternity

Pascal Bruckner
A Brief Eternity Book PDF

Author : Pascal Bruckner
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 180 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2021-02-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781509544349

Get Book

A Brief Eternity by Pascal Bruckner Pdf

There is one fundamental thing that has changed in our societies since 1950: life has got longer. Over the last few generations, 20 or 30 years have been added to the duration of our lives. But after the age of 50, human beings experience a kind of suspension: no longer young, not really old, they are, as it were, weightless. It is a reprieve that leaves life open like a swinging door. The increase in life expectancy is a tremendous step forward that upsets everything: relations between generations, patterns of family life, the very meaning of our identity and our destiny. This reprieve is both exciting and frightening. The deadlines are getting shorter, the possibilities are shrinking, but there are still discoveries, surprises and upsetting love affairs. Time has become a paradoxical ally: instead of killing us, it carries us forward. What to do with this ambiguous gift? Is it only a question of living longer or living more intensely? To continue along the same path or to branch out and start again? What about remarriage, a new career? How to avoid the weariness of living, the melancholy of the twilight years, how to get through great joys and great pains? Nourished by both reflections and statistics, drawing on the sources of literature, the arts and history, this book proposes a philosophy of longevity based not on resignation but on resolution. In short, an art of living this life to the full. Is there not a profound joy in being alive at the age when our ancestors already had one foot in the grave? This book is dedicated to all those who dream of a new spring in the autumn of life, and want to put off winter as long as they can.

The Self-destruction of the West

Damien François
The Self destruction of the West Book PDF

Author : Damien François
Publisher : Editions Publibook
Page : 582 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Anthropology
ISBN : 9782748337976

Get Book

The Self-destruction of the West by Damien François Pdf

Voilà désormais plus de 10 000 ans que la civilisation occidentale s'est installée et voilà 10 000 ans qu'elle viole le sens même de la nature : la vie. En s'appropriant sans concession ce qui l'entourait, l'homme de l'Ouest a vu son horizon ployer sous la charge de la destruction qu'il lui avait lui-même réalisée. Sommes-nous des lycanthropes ou des vampires? Ces monstres si terrifiants qui sortent de notre imagination sont-ils en réalité la copie de notre comportement dévastateur? Prédateurs, nous pompons sans remords les énergies qui nous entourent. Jusqu'où ira-t-on?.

A Short History of Financial Euphoria

John Kenneth Galbraith
A Short History of Financial Euphoria Book PDF

Author : John Kenneth Galbraith
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 1994-07-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781101650806

Get Book

A Short History of Financial Euphoria by John Kenneth Galbraith Pdf

The world-renowned economist offers "dourly irreverent analyses of financial debacle from the tulip craze of the seventeenth century to the recent plague of junk bonds." —The Atlantic. With incomparable wisdom, skill, and wit, world-renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith traces the history of the major speculative episodes in our economy over the last three centuries. Exposing the ways in which normally sane people display reckless behavior in pursuit of profit, Galbraith asserts that our "notoriously short" financial memory is what creates the conditions for market collapse. By recognizing these signs and understanding what causes them we can guard against future recessions and have a better hold on our country's (and our own) financial destiny.

The Wellness Syndrome

Carl Cederström,Andre Spicer
The Wellness Syndrome Book PDF

Author : Carl Cederström,Andre Spicer
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2015-02-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780745688718

Get Book

The Wellness Syndrome by Carl Cederström,Andre Spicer Pdf

Not exercising as much as you should? Counting your caloriesin your sleep? Feeling ashamed for not being happier? You may be avictim of the wellness syndrome. In this ground-breaking new book, Carl Cederström andAndré Spicer argue that the ever-present pressure to maximizeour wellness has started to work against us, making us feel worseand provoking us to withdraw into ourselves. The Wellness Syndromefollows health freaks who go to extremes to find the perfect diet,corporate athletes who start the day with a dance party, and theself-trackers who monitor everything, including their own toilethabits. This is a world where feeling good has becomeindistinguishable from being good. Visions of social change havebeen reduced to dreams of individual transformation, politicaldebate has been replaced by insipid moralising, and scientificevidence has been traded for new-age delusions. A lively andhumorous diagnosis of the cult of wellness, this book is anindispensable guide for everyone suspicious of our relentless questto be happier and healthier.

Here Goes Nothing

Eamon McGrath
Here Goes Nothing Book PDF

Author : Eamon McGrath
Publisher : ECW Press
Page : 101 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2020-09-29
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781773056241

Get Book

Here Goes Nothing by Eamon McGrath Pdf

A smart, gritty examination of the lives of touring musicians Here Goes Nothing, Eamon McGrath’s brave second offering and follow-up to 2017’s widely acclaimed Berlin-Warszawa Express, once again explores the world of touring musicians — but this time McGrath expands his scope and perspective from the inner dialogue of a traveling songwriter into the wider range of a multi-member touring band. Told in two interwoven narratives that blur the lines between past and present, Here Goes Nothing explores the complex relationships that are both created and destroyed by the perpetual-motion engine that is the touring van. From confessional tales of saving friends and oneself from drowning in polluted lakes in Michigan to legendary liver-wrecking nights of excess and debauchery in Lisbon, McGrath comments on the corrupt and selfish music industry and the toll it takes on musicians as they blindly chase success. Here Goes Nothing is a gutsy story of how life on the road can bring a band together — or tear them wildly apart.

The Tyranny of Guilt

Pascal Bruckner
The Tyranny of Guilt Book PDF

Author : Pascal Bruckner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2012-04-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691154305

Get Book

The Tyranny of Guilt by Pascal Bruckner Pdf

Why the West must overcome its guilty conscience to foster a better global future Fascism, communism, genocide, slavery, racism, imperialism—the West has no shortage of reasons for guilt. And, indeed, since the Holocaust and the end of World War II, Europeans in particular have been consumed by remorse. But Pascal Bruckner argues that guilt has now gone too far. It has become a pathology, and even an obstacle to fighting today's atrocities. Bruckner, one of France's leading writers and public intellectuals, argues that obsessive guilt has obscured important realities. The West has no monopoly on evil, and has destroyed monsters as well as created them—leading in the abolition of slavery, renouncing colonialism, building peaceful and prosperous communities, and establishing rules and institutions that are models for the world. The West should be proud—and ready to defend itself and its values. In this, Europeans should learn from Americans, who still have sufficient self-esteem to act decisively in a world of chaos and violence. Lamenting the vice of anti-Americanism that grips so many European intellectuals, Bruckner urges a renewed transatlantic alliance, and advises Americans not to let recent foreign-policy misadventures sap their own confidence. This is a searing, provocative, and psychologically penetrating account of the crude thought and bad politics that arise from excessive bad conscience.

An Imaginary Racism

Pascal Bruckner
An Imaginary Racism Book PDF

Author : Pascal Bruckner
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2018-11-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781509530663

Get Book

An Imaginary Racism by Pascal Bruckner Pdf

‘Islamophobia’ is a term that has existed since the nineteenth century. But in recent decades, argues Pascal Bruckner in his controversial new book, it has become a weapon used to silence criticism of Islam. The term allows those who brandish it in the name of Islam to ‘freeze’ the latter, making reform difficult. Whereas Christianity and Judaism have been rejuvenated over the centuries by external criticism, Islam has been shielded from critical examination and has remained impervious to change. This tendency is exacerbated by the hypocrisy of those Western defenders of Islam who, in the name of the principles of the Enlightenment, seek to muzzle its critics while at the same time demanding the right to chastise and criticize other religions. These developments, argues Bruckner, are counter-productive for Western democracies as they struggle with the twin challenges of immigration and terrorism. The return of religion in those democracies must not be equated with the defence of fanaticism, and the right to religious freedom must go hand in hand with freedom of expression, an openness to criticism, and a rejection of all forms of extremism. There are already more than enough forms of racism; there is no need to imagine more. While all violence directed against Muslims is to be strongly condemned and punished, defining these acts as ‘Islamophobic’ rather than criminal does more to damage Islam and weaken the position of Muslims than to strengthen them.

Spirit Possession in French, Haitian, and Vodou Thought

Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken
Spirit Possession in French Haitian and Vodou Thought Book PDF

Author : Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 437 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-12
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780739184660

Get Book

Spirit Possession in French, Haitian, and Vodou Thought by Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken Pdf

This book recuperates the important history that Haitian thought around Vodou possession has had in French critical theory. The author takes the period of the 1930s and ‘40s, as the centerfold of a more complex network of relations that places Haiti as one of the pivots of a more expanded intellectual conversation around “possession,” which links anthropology, literature, psychoanalysis, human rights, and visual arts in France, Haiti, and the United States. Benedicty argues that Haiti as the anthropological other serves as a kick-starter to an entire French-based theoretical apparatus (Breton, Leiris, Bataille, de Certeau, Foucault, and Butler), but once up and running, its role as catalyst is forgotten and the multiple iterations of the anthropological other are cast back into the net of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s “Savage slot.” The book offers the reader unfamiliar with Haiti a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of twentieth and early twenty-first century Haitian thought, including a detailed timeline of important moments in the intellectual history that connects Haiti to France and the United States. The first part of the book is about global dispossessions in the first decades of the twentieth century; the second part points to how the narratives of ‘Haiti’ are intimately linked to a Franco-U.S.-American discursive space, constructed over the course of the twentieth century, a discursive order that has conflated the representation of ‘Haiti’ with an understanding of Vodou primarily as an occult religion, and not as a philosophical system. The third and fourth parts of the book examine how the novels of René Depestre, Jean-Claude Fignolé, and Kettly Mars have revisited the notion of possession since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorships.

Writers & Lovers

Lily King
Writers Lovers Book PDF

Author : Lily King
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2020-03-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781443460392

Get Book

Writers & Lovers by Lily King Pdf

An extraordinary new novel of art, love and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times–bestselling author of Euphoria, which sold over 400,000 copies in North America. Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman. Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, mouldy room at the side of a garage, where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching on to something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink. Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis.Written with King’s trademark humour, heart and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

The Paradox of Love

Pascal Bruckner
The Paradox of Love Book PDF

Author : Pascal Bruckner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2012-02-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691149141

Get Book

The Paradox of Love by Pascal Bruckner Pdf

Drawing on history, politics, psychology and pop culture, the author traces the roots of sexual liberation to explain love's supreme paradox, and concludes that love's messiness, surprises and paradoxes are not merely the sources of its pain--but also of its pleasure.

Spin Cycle

Ruthy M. Watson
Spin Cycle Book PDF

Author : Ruthy M. Watson
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2019-01-04
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781848883673

Get Book

Spin Cycle by Ruthy M. Watson Pdf

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. Everyday individuals, businesses, government institutions and researchers seek to uncover the true meaning of happiness in order to advance themselves or their causes. The search is ongoing since happiness is both subjective and objective. The same applies to hope. What are the thought processes or foundations that foster hope and thus, move people forward even when the obvious indicators and circumstances suggest otherwise? The numerous activities involved in defining, building and maintaining hope and happiness are never straightforward. Instead imagine that there is a way to spin the two to create such a belief that those who seek hope and happiness perceive success in its acquisition. Even though it is a cycle of highs, lows, ups and downs. This collection of papers will stir readers and evoke thoughts and emotions of hope and happiness based in spirituality, reality and personal perception. Perhaps an assessment of personal hope and happiness will derive from this very special collection of works presented here.

Law in the Time of Oxymora

Rostam J. Neuwirth
Law in the Time of Oxymora Book PDF

Author : Rostam J. Neuwirth
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2018-05-16
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781351170185

Get Book

Law in the Time of Oxymora by Rostam J. Neuwirth Pdf

What do different concepts like true lie, bad luck, honest thief, old news, spacetime, glocalization, symplexity, sustainable development, constant change, soft law, substantive due process, pure law, bureaucratic efficiency and global justice have in common? What connections do they share with innumerable paradoxes, like the ones of happiness, time, globalization, sex, and of free will and fate? Law in the Time of Oxymora provides answers to these conundrums by critically comparing the apparent rise in recent years of the use of rhetorical figures called "essentially oxymoronic concepts" (i.e. oxymoron, enantiosis and paradoxes) in the areas of art, science and law. Albeit to varying degrees, these concepts share the quality of giving expression to apparent contradictions. Through this quality, they also challenge the scientific paradigm rooted in the dualistic thinking and binary logic that is traditionally used in the West, as opposed to the East, where a paradoxical mode of thinking and fuzzy logic is said to have been cultivated. Following a review of oxymora and paradoxes in art and various scientific writings, hundreds of "hard cases" featuring oxymora and a comprehensive review of the legal literature are discussed, revealing evidence suggesting that the present scientific paradigm of dualism alone will no longer be able to tackle the challenges arising from increasing diversity and complexity coupled with an apparent acceleration of change. Law in the Time of Oxymora reaches the surprising conclusion that essentially oxymoronic concepts may inaugurate a new era of cognition, involving the ways the senses interact and how we reason, think and make decisions in law and in life.

This Time Is Different

Carmen M. Reinhart,Kenneth S. Rogoff
This Time Is Different Book PDF

Author : Carmen M. Reinhart,Kenneth S. Rogoff
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 513 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2011-08-07
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780691152646

Get Book

This Time Is Different by Carmen M. Reinhart,Kenneth S. Rogoff Pdf

An empirical investigation of financial crises during the last 800 years.

Sweet Acceptance Versus Bitter Resistance

Peter Sacco
Sweet Acceptance Versus Bitter Resistance Book PDF

Author : Peter Sacco
Publisher : Andrews UK Limited
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2012-01-16
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 9781849899840

Get Book

Sweet Acceptance Versus Bitter Resistance by Peter Sacco Pdf

This book uses 3 tenets for treating addiction: Psychology, spiritualism and law of attraction. When readers apply the proven principles in this book, they will be able to overcome any kind of addiction, bad habit as well as set positive, productive belief systems.