A SIGNIFICANT LIFE: HUMAN MEANING IN A SILENT UNIVERSE
Book ID/图书代码： 13560015B79944
English Summary/英文概要： What makes for a good life, or a beautiful one, or, perhaps most important, a meaningful one? Throughout history most of us have looked to our faith, our relationships, or our deeds for the answer. But in A Significant Life, philosopher Todd May offers an exhilarating new way of thinking about these questions, one deeply attuned to life as it actually is: a work in progress, a journey—and often a narrative. Offering moving accounts of his own life and memories alongside rich engagements with philosophers from Aristotle to Heidegger, he shows us where to find the significance of our lives: in the way we live them.
May starts by looking at the fundamental fact that life unfolds over time, and as it does so, it begins to develop certain qualities, certain themes. Our lives can be marked by intensity, curiosity, perseverance, or many other qualities that become guiding narrative values. These values lend meanings to our lives that are distinct from—but also interact with—the universal values we are taught to cultivate, such as goodness or happiness. Offering a fascinating examination of a broad range of figures—from music icon Jimi Hendrix to civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, from cyclist Lance Armstrong to The Portrait of a Lady’s Ralph Touchett to Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer who tried to assassinate Hitler—May shows that narrative values offer a rich variety of criteria by which to assess a life, specific to each of us and yet widely available. They offer us a way of reading ourselves, who we are, and who we might like to be.
Clearly and eloquently written, A Significant Life is a recognition and a comfort, a celebration of the deeply human narrative impulse by which we make—even if we don’t realize it—meaning for ourselves. It offers a refreshing way to think of an age-old question, of quite simply, what makes a life worth living.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 是什么成就了美好生活，或者美丽人生，或者，也许也是最重要的，有意义的人生？纵观历史，我们大多数人都依靠信仰、人脉或者实际行动来寻求答案。但在这本书中，一哲学家Todd May提供了思考这些问题的一个令人振奋的新方式，一个人应该去尽可能地适应生活的本来面目：生活就是不断有些进展的工作，人生就是旅程。书中不仅有关于他自己生活的回忆，还有丰富的哲学思想碰撞，从亚里士多德到海德格尔，他告诉读者在哪里能够找到生活的意义：在我们的生活方式里。
May从最基本的事实开始，也就是生命随着时间不断流逝而消逝。随着时间的推移，生命逐渐发展到一定的品质和某些特定的主题。我们的生活可以依靠强度、好奇心、毅力或许多其它品质来作为指导其价值的标志。这样的价值观使我们的生活有了意义，但这与我们长久以来所被教导的普遍价值观并不一定相同（当然了它们肯定互相之间有所关联），比如善良，或幸福。从音乐偶像Jimi Hendrix到民权领袖Fannie Lou Hamer，从自行车运动员Lance Armstrong到画家Ralph Touchett，再到试图暗杀希特勒的德国军官Claus von Stauffenberg， May展现的多样的价值评估标准，用以检验我们的生活。这是一种了解自我的方式，让我们知道我们是谁，我们可能是谁。
本书思路清晰、文字有力，是一种认可和安慰，是对深刻人性的庆祝，也是我们本身存在的意义。它通过令人耳目一新的方式，思考了一个古老的问题，简单地说就是，究竟是什么使生命值得被延续。（LYR）
Awards/获奖情况：在本书中，May塑造了一次力量之旅。它是深思熟虑的、微妙的，完美地讨论了要过上有意义的生活究竟需要付出些什么。认真研读这本书，你会发现究竟是什么让生命值得延续下去。在我们这个“小”时代，竟然有人担心这样的大问题，读到本书的感受或许就是如此清新。书中还能就这个问题提供实际的答案，这就更令人喜悦了。（Barry Schwartz，著有《The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less》）
“In A Significant Life, May has produced a tour de force. It is a thoughtful, subtle, beautifully written discussion of what it takes to live a meaningful life. A careful study of this book will tell you what it takes to make life worth living. It is refreshing to encounter someone worrying about such a big question in the small-minded times we live in, and an absolute joy to discover that he may actually have provided an answer.”
(Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less)
About the Author/作者介绍： Todd May是克莱姆森大学人文学院教授。他著有多部书籍，包括《Friendship in an Age of Economics》、《Contemporary Movements and the Thought of Jacques Rancière》等等。
Todd May is Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities at Clemson University. He is the author of many books, including Friendship in an Age of Economics, Contemporary Movements and the Thought of Jacques Rancière, and Death.
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