For the first time, an award-winning Harvard professor shares his wildly popular course on classical Chinese philosophy, showing you how ancient ideas—like the fallacy of the authentic self—can guide you on the path to a good life today.
Why is a course on ancient Chinese philosophers one of the most popular at Harvard? Because it challenges all our modern assumptions about what it takes to flourish.
Astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities. Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities.
In other words, The Path “opens the mind” (Huffington Post) and upends everything we are told about how to lead a good life. Its most radical idea is that there is no path to follow in the first place—just a journey we create anew at every moment by seeing and doing things differently. “With its…spirited, convincing vision, revolutionary new insights can be gleaned from this book on how to approach life’s multifarious situations with both heart and head” (Kirkus Reviews).
eBook - ePub
The Path
What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life
- 224 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
The Path
What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life
About this book
Information
Subtopic
Mental Health & WellbeingTable of contents
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1. The Age of Complacency
- 2. The Age of Philosophy
- 3. On Relationships: Confucius and As-If Rituals
- 4. On Decisions: Mencius and the Capricious World
- 5. On Influence: Laozi and Generating Worlds
- 6. On Vitality: The Inward Training and Being like a Spirit
- 7. On Spontaneity: Zhuangzi and a World of Transformation
- 8. On Humanity: Xunzi and Putting Pattern on the World
- 9. The Age of Possibility
- Acknowledgments
- Reading Group Guide
- Resources and Further Reading
- About the Authors
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access The Path by Michael Puett,Christine Gross-Loh in PDF and/or ePUB format. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.