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Author Cottingham, John, 1943- author

Title Philosophy and the good life : reason and the passions in Greek, Cartesian, and psychoanalytic ethics / John Cottingham
Published Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 1998
Cambridge ; New York, N.Y. : Cambridge University Press, 1998

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 MELB  170 Cot/Pat  AVAILABLE
Description xiii, 230 pages ; 23 cm
Contents 1. Philosophy and how to live -- 2. Ratiocentric ethics -- 3. The ethics of science and power -- 4. Ethics and the challenge to reason
Summary Lucid in exposition and unusually wide-ranging in scope, Philosophy and the good life provides a fresh and challenging perspective on moral philosophy and psychology for students and specialists alike
Can philosophy enable us to lead better lives through a systematic understanding of our human nature? John Cottingham's thought-provoking study examines the contrasting approaches to this problem found in three major phases of Western philosophy. Starting with attempts of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics and Epicureans to cope with the recalcitrant forces of the passions, he moves on to examine the fascinating and hitherto little-studied moral psychology of Descartes, and his effort to integrate the physical and emotional aspects of our humanity into a rational blueprint for fulfilment. He concludes by analysing the insights of modern psychoanalytic theory into the human predicament, arguing that philosophy neglects them at its peril if it hopes to come to terms with the complex relationship between reason and the emotions
Analysis Psychology - Philosophy
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 218-226) and index
Subject Descartes, René, 1596-1650 -- Ethics.
Descartes, René, 1596-1650.
Conduct of life.
Emotions -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Emotions.
Ethics, Ancient.
Emotivism.
Ethics.
Psychoanalysis and philosophy.
Psychoanalysis -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Mind and body.
Reason.
LC no. 97027898
ISBN 0521473101
0521478901 (paperback)