There is no cure for the human condition: life is hard. But Kieran Setiya, Ph.D. believes philosophy can help. He offers us a map for navigating rough terrain, from personal trauma to the injustice and absurdity of the world. In his profound and personal book Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, Setiya draws on ancient and modern philosophy as well as fiction, history, memoir, film, comedy, social science, and stories from Setiya’s own experience. Life Is Hard is a book for this moment—a work of solace and compassion.

Warm, accessible, and good-humored, Life is Hard is about making the best of a bad lot. It offers guidance for coping with pain and making new friends, for grieving the lost and failing with grace, for confronting injustice and searching for meaning in life. Countering pop psychologists and online influencers who admonish us to “find our bliss” and “live our best lives,” Setiya acknowledges that the best is often out of reach. Instead, he asks how we can weather life’s adversities, finding hope and living well when life is hard.

Setiya will be in conversation with Jim Holt, author of the 2012 book Why Does the World Exist?, an international best-seller that has been translated into twenty languages. He is also the author of When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought (2018) and Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes (2008). A longtime contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books, he is currently at work on Living: Theory and Practice, which will be published by Farrar Straus Giroux in the United States and by Viking in the UK.

This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.

This event is presented by Family Action Network (FAN). Gorton Center is proud to partner with FAN as a sponsor of this event to bring this programming to our patrons.