Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman

Download Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319674072
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (196 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman by : Gordon F. Davis

Download or read book Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman written by Gordon F. Davis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-18 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of essays offers direct comparisons of historic Western and Buddhist perspectives on ethics and metaphysics, tracing parallels and contrasts all the way from Plato to the Stoics, Spinoza to Hume, and Schopenhauer through to contemporary ethicists such as Arne Naess, Charles Taylor and Derek Parfit. It compares and contrasts each Western philosopher with a particular strand in the Buddhist tradition, in some chapters represented by individual writers such as Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Santideva or Tsong Khapa. It does so in light of both analytic concerns and themes from the existentialist and phenomenological traditions, and often in an ecumenical spirit that bridges both analytic and continentalist approaches. Some of the deepest questions in ethics, dealing with the scope of agency, value-laden notions of personhood and the nature of value in general, are intertwined with questions in metaphysics. One set of questions addresses how varying conceptions of selfhood relate to moral values (e.g. the concern of self or selves for the well-being of others); another set of questions addresses how a conception of oneself or one’s selves should or should not affect how one thinks of happiness, or eudaimonia, or – in classical Indian terms – artha, sukha or nirvana. Western philosophy has featured discussion of both, but some would argue that certain traditions of Asian philosophy have offered a more sustained and even treatment of both sets of questions. The Buddhist tradition in particular has not only featured much discussion on both fronts, but has attracted many contemporary philosophers to its distinctive spectrum of approaches, and to what is – from many ‘Western’ points of view – a seemingly subversive analysis of ego, selfhood and personhood, whether in metaphysical, phenomenological or other incarnations.

The Concealed Art of the Soul

Download The Concealed Art of the Soul PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Clarendon Press
ISBN 13 : 0191607045
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Concealed Art of the Soul by : Jonardon Ganeri

Download or read book The Concealed Art of the Soul written by Jonardon Ganeri and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2007-07-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Concealed Art of the Soul, Jonardon Ganeri presents a variety of perspectives on the nature of the self as seen by major schools of classical Indian philosophy. For Indian thinkers, a philosophical treatise about the self should not only reveal the truth about the nature of the soul, but should also engage the reader in a process of study and contemplation that will eventually lead to self-transformation. By combining careful attention to philosophical content and sensitivity to literary form, Ganeri deepens our understanding of some of the greatest works in Indian literary history. His magisterial survey includes the Upanisads, the Buddha's discourses, the epic Mahabharata, and the writings of Candrakirti, whose work was later to provide the foundation for Tibetan Buddhism. Ganeri argues that many Western theories of selfhood are not only present in, but are developed to high degree of sophistication in these writings, and that there are other ideas about the self found in the work of classical Indian thinkers which present-day analytic philosophers have not yet begun to explore. Scholars and students of philosophy and religious studies, particularly those with an interest in Indian and Western conceptions of the self, will find this book fascinating reading.

Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave

Download Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198880901
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave by :

Download or read book Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave written by and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave brings philosophers from two of the world's great philosophical traditions--Platonic and Indian Buddhist--into joint inquiry on topics in metaphysics, epistemology, mind, language, and ethics. An international team of scholars address selected questions of mutual concern to Buddhist and Platonist: How can knowledge of reality transform us? Will such transformation leave us speechless, or disinterested in the world around us? What is cause? What is self-knowledge? And how can dreams shed light on waking cognition? What do the paradoxes thrown up by abstract thought about fundamental notions such as being and unity reveal? Is it possible to attain unity in ourselves, and should we even try? Would doing so make us happy--and is such happiness consistent with both contemplation of reality and action in the world? With close readings of texts by Buddhaghosa, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Dignaga, Bhaviveka, Santideva; by Plato, Plotinus, Porphyry, Olympiodorus, and Damascius (among others), these studies consider not just the different answers Buddhists and Platonists might give to these questions, but also the criticisms they might bring to each other's positions, the sort of arguments they use, and the use they put these arguments to. Bringing Platonic and the Buddhist perspectives jointly to bear creates a cosmopolitan philosophical exchange which yields greater conceptual clarity on the questions and the terms in which they are cast, reveals unnoticed conceptual connections, and opens up new possibilities for addressing central philosophical concerns.

Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China

Download Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190941022
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China by : Christopher W. Gowans

Download or read book Self-Cultivation Philosophies in Ancient India, Greece, and China written by Christopher W. Gowans and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The book defends the thesis that the concept of self-cultivation philosophy is an informative interpretive framework for comprehending and reflecting on several philosophical outlooks in India, the Greco-Roman world and China. On the basis of an understanding of human nature and the place of human beings in the world, self-cultivation philosophies maintain that our lives can and should be substantially transformed from what is judged to be a problematic, untutored condition of human beings, our existential starting-point, into what is put forward as an ideal state of being. We are to do this by undertaking a set of therapeutic or spiritual exercises guided by some philosophical analysis. The self-cultivation philosophies in India are expressed in: the Bhagavad Gītā; the Sāṃkhya and Yoga philosophies of Īśvarakṛṣṇa and Patañjali; and teaching of the Buddha and his followers Buddhaghosa and Śāntideva. The philosophies originating in Greece, with subsequent development in the Roman period, are the most prominent Hellenistic approaches: the Epicureanism of Epicurus, Lucretius and Philodemus; the Stoicism of Chrysippus, Epictetus and Seneca; and Pyrrho and the Pyrrhonism of Sextus Empiricus. The self-cultivation philosophies from China are the early Confucian outlooks of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi; the classical Daoist perspectives of the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi; and the Chan tradition of Bodhidharma, Huineng and Linji"--

Buddhist Ethics

Download Buddhist Ethics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190907630
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Buddhist Ethics by : Jay L. Garfield

Download or read book Buddhist Ethics written by Jay L. Garfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "'Buddhist Ethics' presents an outline of Buddhist ethical thought. It is not a defense of Buddhist approaches to ethics as opposed to any other, nor is it a critique of the Western tradition. Garfield presents a broad overview of a range of Buddhist approaches to the question of moral philosophy. He argues that while there are important points of contact with these Western frameworks, Buddhist ethics is distinctive, and is a kind of moral phenomenology that is concerned with the ways in which we experience ourselves as agents and others as moral fellows"--

Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice

Download Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231549903
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice by : Jonathan C. Gold

Download or read book Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice written by Jonathan C. Gold and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Śāntideva’s eighth-century work, the Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra), is known for its eminently practical instructions and its psychologically vivid articulations of the Mahāyāna path. It is a powerful, succinct poem into which are woven diverse Buddhist traditions of moral transformation, meditative cultivation, and philosophical insight. Since its composition, it has seen continuous use as a ritual, contemplative, and philosophical manual, making it one of the crucial texts of the Buddhist ethical and philosophical tradition. This book serves as a companion to this Indian Buddhist classic. The fifteen essays contained here illuminate the Guide’s many philosophical, literary, ritual, and ethical dimensions. Distinguished scholars discuss the historical significance of the text as an innovative piece of Indian literature, illuminate the important roles it played in shaping Buddhism in Tibet, and bring to light its contemporary significance for philosophy and psychology. Whether experienced or first-time students of Buddhist literature, readers will find compelling new approaches to this resonant masterpiece.

Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path

Download Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350379565
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path by : Stephen Harris

Download or read book Buddhist Ethics and the Bodhisattva Path written by Stephen Harris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Santideva's 8th century Mahayana Buddhist classic, the Guide to the Practices of Awakening (Bodhicaryavatara), has been a source of philosophical inspiration in the Indian and Tibetan traditions for over a thousand years. Stephen Harris guides us through a philosophical exploration of Santideva's masterpiece, introducing us to his understanding of the compassionate bodhisattva, who vows to liberate the entire universe from suffering. Individual chapters provide studies of the bodhisattva virtues of generosity, patience, compassion, and wisdom, illustrating the role each plays in Santideva's account of well-being and moral development. Harris also provides in-depth analysis of many of Santideva's most influential arguments, demonstrating how he employs reasoning as a method to cultivate moral character. As the first book-length English language philosophical study of Santideva's most influential text, this will be essential reading for students and scholars of Buddhist ethics, as well as for anyone interested in intercultural ethics and the philosophy of well-being.

Ethical Theory in Global Perspective

Download Ethical Theory in Global Perspective PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438496877
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethical Theory in Global Perspective by : Michael Hemmingsen

Download or read book Ethical Theory in Global Perspective written by Michael Hemmingsen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2024-02-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethical Theory in Global Perspective provides an easy-to-teach introduction to ethical theory from a uniquely global perspective. In addition to key Western ethical theories—such as virtue ethics, consequentialism, various deontological theories, and care ethics—moral theories from a range of East Asian, South Asian, and African philosophical traditions and schools are also discussed, including Akan philosophy, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and both orthodox and heterodox schools of classical Indian philosophy. In short, this book is a key resource for educators who want to diversify their ethical theory curricula but are not sure how, as well as those currently teaching comparative ethics looking for a single textbook that covers a range of philosophical traditions in a clear, approachable way.

Differences in Identity in Philosophy and Religion

Download Differences in Identity in Philosophy and Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350076511
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Differences in Identity in Philosophy and Religion by : Lydia Azadpour

Download or read book Differences in Identity in Philosophy and Religion written by Lydia Azadpour and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the constitutive role alterity plays in identity formation in Western and Eastern traditions. It examines the significance of difference in conceptions of identity across major philosophical and religious traditions in a global and comparative context, considering Ancient Greek and Egyptian, Chinese, Islamic, European and Japanese philosophies. In addition, the book opens up discussion of less dominant trends in philosophical thinking, particularly the spaces between self-same existence and otherness in the histories of philosophical and religious thought. Chapters critique both essentialist and postmodern understandings of self-constitution by questioning the ordinary narrative of identity construction across Western and non-Western traditions. The book also explores the construction of selfhood from a wide range of perspectives, drawing upon individual philosophers (including Plotinus, Descartes, Geulincx, Hume, de Beauvoir and Ueda) as well as religious and philosophical movements, including Confucian philosophy, Zen Buddhism, Protestantism and Post-Phenomenology. Differences in Identity in Philosophy and Religion represents a landmark study, drawing together a range of approaches, perspectives and traditions to explore how identity is constructed across the world.

Critical Human Resource Management

Download Critical Human Resource Management PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000397459
Total Pages : 127 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Critical Human Resource Management by : Dhammika Jayawardena

Download or read book Critical Human Resource Management written by Dhammika Jayawardena and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-31 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human resource management (HRM) is the predominant apparatus for people management across the world. Since its inception, HRM has nevertheless been subjected to critical scrutiny. This work has produced a corpus of literature now referred to as ‘Critical HRM’. This book on Critical HRM traces the development of the critical scholarly tradition in people management. It analyzes, organizes and synthesizes the various perspectives, ideas and arguments that constitute this critical tradition. The book identifies the current status and future trends of Critical HRM, and explores its ethico-political role in contemporary organizations, especially in the context of widespread public concern about making business more ethical. Incorporating under-researched and emerging issues of people management, such as the Global South and Critical HRM, with more established themes of Critical HRM, this book introduces Critical HRM’s critique of mainstream HRM and its underpinning assumptions. It illustrates how interventions have the potential to transform organizational policies and practices of managing people at work. The book will be of interest to professionals, researchers, and academics focusing on critical issues in people management across the Global South and North.

Virtue’s Reasons

Download Virtue’s Reasons PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 131531424X
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (153 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Virtue’s Reasons by : Noell Birondo

Download or read book Virtue’s Reasons written by Noell Birondo and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtues and reasons are two of the most fruitful and important concepts in contemporary moral philosophy. Many writers have commented upon the close connection between virtues and reasons, but no one has done full justice to the complexity of this connection. It is generally recognized that the virtues not only depend upon reasons, but also sometimes provide them. The essays in this volume shed light on precisely how virtues and reasons are related to each other and what can be learned by exploring this relationship. Virtue’s Reasons is divided into three sections, each of them devoted to a general issue regarding the relationship between virtues and reasons. The first section analyzes how the virtues may be related to, or linked with, normative reasons in ways that improve our understanding of what constitutes virtuous character and ethical agency. The second section explores the reasons moral agents have for cultivating the virtues and how the virtues impact moral responsiveness or development. The final section examines how reasons can be employed in understanding the nature of virtue, and how specific virtues, like modesty and practical wisdom, interact with reasons. This book will be of major interest to scholars working on virtue theory, the nature of moral character, and normative ethics.

Three Pillars of Skepticism in Classical India

Download Three Pillars of Skepticism in Classical India PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498555705
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Three Pillars of Skepticism in Classical India by : Ethan Mills

Download or read book Three Pillars of Skepticism in Classical India written by Ethan Mills and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the earliest strata of Indian philosophy, this book uncovers a distinct tradition of skepticism in Indian philosophy through a study of the “three pillars” of Indian skepticism near the beginning, middle, and end of the classical era: Nāgārjuna (c. 150-200 CE), Jayarāśi (c. 770-830 CE), and Śrī Harṣa (c. 1125-1180 CE). Moving beyond the traditional school model of understanding the history of Indian philosophy, this book argues that the philosophical history of India contains a tradition of skepticism about philosophy represented most clearly by three figures coming from different schools but utilizing similar methods: Nāgārjuna, Jayarāśi, and Śrī Harṣa. This book argues that there is a category of skepticism often overlooked by philosophers today: skepticism about philosophy, varieties of which are found not only in classical India but also in the Western tradition in Pyrrhonian skepticism. Skepticism about philosophy consists of intellectual therapies for those afflicted by the quest for dogmatic beliefs. The book begins with the roots of this type of skepticism in ancient India in the Ṛg Veda, Upaniṣads, and early Buddhist texts. Then there are two chapters on each of the three major figures: one chapter giving each philosopher’s overall aims and methods and a second demonstrating how each philosopher applies these methods to specific philosophical issues. The conclusion shows how the history of Indian skepticism might help to answer philosophy’s detractors today: while skeptics demonstrate that we should be modest about philosophy’s ability to produce firm answers, philosophy nonetheless has other uses such as cultivating critical thinking skills and lessening dogmatism. This book is situated within a larger project of expanding the history of philosophy. Just as the history of Western philosophy ought to inform contemporary philosophy, so should expanding the history of philosophy to include classical India illuminate understandings of philosophy today: its value, limits, and what it can do for us in the 21st century.

Shakespeare and Virtue

Download Shakespeare and Virtue PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108910432
Total Pages : 796 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (89 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Shakespeare and Virtue by : Julia Reinhard Lupton

Download or read book Shakespeare and Virtue written by Julia Reinhard Lupton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume maps Shakespearean virtue in all its plasticity and variety, providing thirty-eight succinct, wide-ranging essays that reveal a breadth and diversity exceeding any given morality or code of behaviour. Clearly explaining key concepts in the history of ethics and in classical, theological, and global virtue traditions, the collection reveals their presence in the works of Shakespeare in interpersonal, civic, and ecological scenes of action. Paying close attention to individual identity and social environment, chapters also consider how the virtuous horizons broached in Shakespearean drama have been tested anew by the plays' global travels and fresh encounters with different traditions. Including sections on global wisdom, performance and pedagogy, this handbook affirms virtue as a resource for humanistic education and the building of human capacity.

Literature and Religious Experience

Download Literature and Religious Experience PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350193925
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Literature and Religious Experience by : Matthew J. Smith

Download or read book Literature and Religious Experience written by Matthew J. Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges the status quo of studies in literature and religion by returning to “experience” as a bridge between theory and practice. Essays focus on keywords of religious experience and demonstrate their applications in drama, fiction, and poetry. Each chapter explores the broad significance of its keyword as a category of psychological and social behavior and tracks its unique articulation by individual authors, including Conrad, Beecher Stowe and Melville. Together, the chapters construct a critical foundation for studying literature not only from the perspectives of theology and historicism but from the ways that literary experience reflects, reinforces, and sometimes challenges religious experience.

Key Concepts in World Philosophies

Download Key Concepts in World Philosophies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350168149
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Key Concepts in World Philosophies by : Sarah Flavel

Download or read book Key Concepts in World Philosophies written by Sarah Flavel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-01-12 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crossing continents and running across centuries, Key Concepts in World Philosophies brings together the 45 core ideas associated with major Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, African, Ancient Greek, Indigenous and modern European philosophers. The universal theme of self-cultivation and transformation connects each concept. Each one seeks to change our understanding the world or the life we are living. From Chinese xin and karma in Buddhist traditions to okwu in African philosophy, equity in Islamic thought and the good life in Aztec philosophy, an international team of philosophers cover a diverse set of ideas and theories originating from thinkers such as Confucius, Buddha, Dogen, Nezahualcoyotl, Nietzsche and Zhuangzi. Organised around the major themes of knowledge, metaphysics and aesthetics, each short chapter provides an introductory overview supported by a glossary. This is a one-of-a-kind toolkit that allows you to read philosophical texts from all over the world and learn how their ideas can be applied to your own life.

Asian Philosophies and the Idea of Religion

Download Asian Philosophies and the Idea of Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000194647
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (1 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Asian Philosophies and the Idea of Religion by : Sonia Sikka

Download or read book Asian Philosophies and the Idea of Religion written by Sonia Sikka and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a focus on Asian traditions, this book examines varieties of thought and self-transformative practice that do not fit neatly on one side or another of the standard Western division between philosophy and religion. It contains chapters by experts on Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Jain philosophies, as well as ancient Greek philosophy and recent contemplative and spiritual movements. The volume also problematizes the notion of a Western philosophical canon distinguished by rationality in contrast to a religious Eastern "other". These original essays creatively lay the groundwork needed to rethink dominant historical and conceptual categories from a wider perspective to arrive at a deeper, more plural and global understanding of the diverse nature of both philosophy and religion. The volume will be of keen interest to scholars and students in the Philosophy of Religion, Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Death

Download Death PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317488482
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Death by : Todd May

Download or read book Death written by Todd May and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fact that we will die, and that our death can come at any time, pervades the entirety of our living. There are many ways to think about and deal with death. Among those ways, however, a good number of them are attempts to escape its grip. In this book, Todd May seeks to confront death in its power. He considers the possibility that our mortal deaths are the end of us, and asks what this might mean for our living. What lessons can we draw from our mortality? And how might we live as creatures who die, and who know we are going to die? In answering these questions, May brings together two divergent perspectives on death. The first holds that death is not an evil, or at least that immortality would be far worse than dying. The second holds that death is indeed an evil, and that there is no escaping that fact. May shows that if we are to live with death, we need to hold these two perspectives together. Their convergence yields both a beauty and a tragedy to our living that are inextricably entwined.Drawing on the thoughts of many philosophers and writers - ancient and modern - as well as his own experience, May puts forward a particular view of how we might think about and, more importantly, live our lives in view of the inescapability of our dying. In the end, he argues, it is precisely the contingency of our lives that must be grasped and which must be folded into the hours or years that remain to each of us, so that we can live each moment as though it were at once a link to an uncertain future and yet perhaps the only link we have left.