Description
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On Bullshit, a profound meditation on how and why we love
In The Reasons of Love, leading moral philosopher and bestselling author Harry Frankfurt argues that the key to a fulfilled life is to pursue wholeheartedly what one cares about, that love is the most authoritative form of caring, and that the purest form of love is, in a complicated way, self-love. Through caring, we infuse the world with meaning. Caring provides us with stable ambitions and concerns, and it shapes the framework of aims and interests within which we lead our lives. Love is a nonvoluntary, disinterested concern for the flourishing of what we love-and self-love, as distinct from self-indulgence, is at heart of this concern. The most elementary form of self-love is no more than the desire to love, and self-love is simply a commitment to finding meaning in our lives.
About the Author
Harry G. Frankfurt (1929-2023) was professor of philosophy emeritus at Princeton University. His books include the #1 New York Times bestseller On Bullshit, On Inequality, and Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen (all Princeton).
Reviews
"A pleasure to read. . . . Its literary qualities . . . resemble the sharp lines and bright colors of a fine Mondrian or the austere elegance of good modernist architecture. . . . [A] comprehensive statement of the mature views of one of the most creative philosophers of his generation."-Philip L. Quinn, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"[Frankfurt's] little book provides the rare pleasure of witnessing an agile and sensitive mind grappling with an issue of universal importance."-Eric Ormsby, New York Sun
"Well worth reading."-Berel Dov Lerner, Practical Philosophy
"A thought-provoking work that should appeal to those interested in love, practical reasoning, and questions concerning the good life."-Jason Kawall, Philosophy in Review
Book Information
ISBN 9780691191478
Author Harry G. Frankfurt
Format Paperback
Page Count 112
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
