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4 reviews for:
The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life: A Guide to Creating Your Own Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions
Malcolm Collins
4.28 AVERAGE
4 reviews for:
The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life: A Guide to Creating Your Own Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions
Malcolm Collins
4.28 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
I'm too old to waste time finishing bad books.
On the surface, this book holds promise. The overall idea--figure out what you believe and then live your life according to those baseline beliefs--makes sense. But beyond that one sentence, things go downhill. The authors are self-congratulatory to a fault and extremely anti-intellectual. Actual philosophy and such--you know, the entirety of human thought for millennia--is "stuffy" and impractical. But these two entrepreneurs have all the answers if you'll just follow their agenda.
The thought exercises offered in the first half of the book (which is as far as I read) are often sophomoric and more often intellectually dishonest, setting up false dichotomies designed to funnel the reader into accepting the authors' authority rather than to stimulate actual critical thinking. They create unsolvable dilemmas and then, when the reader gets tangled, they offer seemingly clear solutions--to problems that they created. Oh, and if you turn to philosophy to solve these dilemmas, you're imprisoned by ideology and not living your true values.
Also, be warned that this "guide to life" is completely amoral. If you decide that your baseline values are to promote your own benefit at the expense of others or that you really derive pleasure from, say, torturing small animals, the premise of this book is that you should order your life to maximize those values. It's moral relativism in the extreme crossed with a particularly virulent form of modern solipsism and white American entitlement.
Finally, the account written by Simone of how she was perfectly happy in her life until she met Michael and he showed her that her life was shallow and meaningless and now she lives according to his rules and she's *so much happier* is one giant neon red flag. Maybe Michael is a fantastic guy. But the way Simone describes her "conversion" reads like a memoir of an abusive marriage or becoming a cult member. It's creepy and sad and at least as big a turn-off as the intellectual laziness, amorality, and dishonesty in their "philosophy." In fact, if you'd like to know what trying to reason with a narcissistic sociopath is like, just read this book. Better yet, skip the gaslighting and condescension and read some real philosophy.
On the surface, this book holds promise. The overall idea--figure out what you believe and then live your life according to those baseline beliefs--makes sense. But beyond that one sentence, things go downhill. The authors are self-congratulatory to a fault and extremely anti-intellectual. Actual philosophy and such--you know, the entirety of human thought for millennia--is "stuffy" and impractical. But these two entrepreneurs have all the answers if you'll just follow their agenda.
The thought exercises offered in the first half of the book (which is as far as I read) are often sophomoric and more often intellectually dishonest, setting up false dichotomies designed to funnel the reader into accepting the authors' authority rather than to stimulate actual critical thinking. They create unsolvable dilemmas and then, when the reader gets tangled, they offer seemingly clear solutions--to problems that they created. Oh, and if you turn to philosophy to solve these dilemmas, you're imprisoned by ideology and not living your true values.
Also, be warned that this "guide to life" is completely amoral. If you decide that your baseline values are to promote your own benefit at the expense of others or that you really derive pleasure from, say, torturing small animals, the premise of this book is that you should order your life to maximize those values. It's moral relativism in the extreme crossed with a particularly virulent form of modern solipsism and white American entitlement.
Finally, the account written by Simone of how she was perfectly happy in her life until she met Michael and he showed her that her life was shallow and meaningless and now she lives according to his rules and she's *so much happier* is one giant neon red flag. Maybe Michael is a fantastic guy. But the way Simone describes her "conversion" reads like a memoir of an abusive marriage or becoming a cult member. It's creepy and sad and at least as big a turn-off as the intellectual laziness, amorality, and dishonesty in their "philosophy." In fact, if you'd like to know what trying to reason with a narcissistic sociopath is like, just read this book. Better yet, skip the gaslighting and condescension and read some real philosophy.
Couldn't even make it through the first chapter. Her description of their first date set of every red flag in my head. He sounds exactly like my abusive ex.