Lost in Thought (eBook)

The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life

Zena Hitz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
240 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-18923-9 (ISBN)

Infos

An invitation to readers from every walk of life to rediscover the impractical splendors of a life of learningIn an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a birdwatcher, or someone who takes a deep interest in one of countless other subjects. Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Hitz's own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought.Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on universities to return to the person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.Reminding us of who we once were and who we might become, Lost in Thought is a moving account of why renewing our inner lives is fundamental to preserving our humanity.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.5.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• Schlagworte: academic memoir • acronym • activism • Admiration • African Americans • Ancient Greece • art film • Asceticism • Assembly Line • Astronomy • attempt • augury • Autobiography • awareness • Bank account • Blinders (poultry) • books for book lovers • Boredom • Brute fact • Calculation • Career • Catholicism • Classroom • Cloister • Cockfight • Colonialism • communism • Competition • compulsive behavior • Consideration • Contemporary ethics • contentment • critique of education • Cultivating Humanity • deed • eating • electricity • Elena Ferrante • E's • everyman's library • Excellent Sheep • Exclusion • Fareed Zakaria • Finding • Flourishing • George Steiner • gifts for students • grammar • Grandiosity • Gym • Hairstyle • His Family • Hospice • Hospitality • Host family • Housewife • How to Live on 24 Hours a Day • Human nature • humiliation • humility • hypocrisy • impiety • impostor syndrome • income • In Defense of Liberal Education • inspirational books for students • Institution • intellectual pursuits • Irony • Jacques Maritain • kindness • laughter • laundry • lay intellectuals • Laziness • learning • Leather • Lecture • Liberal Education • Library stack • life of the mind • Literature • Local community • loneliness • love of learning • Magic (illusion) • Make a Difference • Manuscript • marriage of convenience • Martha Nussbaum • Materialism • mathematician • Mathematics • Matthew Crawford • meal • memoir of education • Midlife Crisis • Morality • Narcissism • Narration • National Endowment for the Humanities • Neapolitan novels • New Learning • newspaper • not for profit • novelist • obstacle • of education • On the Trinity • On Truth • Oppression • Our Choice • Our Community • Person • Personal development • phenomenon • Philosopher • Philosophy • pity • Pleasure • Plotinus • Poetry • political efficacy • Political Philosophy • Politics • portion size • Prison Officer • psychotherapy • Publication • Purpose of education • Radicalization • Real-life experience (transgender) • Recreation • Reinforcement • Religion • rhetoric • sadness • Sake • salary • Savoring • Scholarship • Screwball comedy film • self-deception • Selfishness • Self-knowledge (psychology) • seriousness • Sexual Desire (book) • shoemaking • Shop Class as Soulcraft • Simone Weil • sobriety • Social Class • Social Environment • social issue • Social reality • Social Status • solitary confinement • Spiritual direction • spouse • Suffering • Suicide • superficiality • Superiority (short story) • Sympathy • Technology • The Concubine (novel) • The Elegance of the Hedgehog • Theft • Their Lives • Theodore Roosevelt • theory • The Other Hand • The Philosopher • Thought • Trapping • treatise • trophy wife • Two Kinds • undergraduate education • Understanding • Upton Sinclair • uses of education • value of education • Vegetable • virginity • Wealth • Weapon • well-being • William Deresiewicz • wishful thinking • work of art • Writing
• ISBN-10: 0-691-18923-4 / 0691189234
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-18923-9 / 9780691189239