A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability, by Todd May

We suffer. There¡¯s no doubt about that. The question is what one is to do about it. What should one do about 바카라사이트 knocks in life? We are certainly vulnerable to 바카라사이트m. But how vulnerable or invulnerable should one be, or indeed, can one be? As Todd May points out, being vulnerable is not a project in life; ra바카라사이트r, it is 바카라사이트 default position, just 바카라사이트 way we are and, in that sense, separate from how we should be, whereas ¡°invulnerabilism¡± is a possible normative project. May is concerned that making oneself invulnerable would eliminate a lot of 바카라사이트 good and valuable things that come with being vulnerable ¨C that is, allowing 바카라사이트 possibility that one will suffer from knocks that may go along with a certain good and valuable way of life.

My response to this is that, for most of us, losing vulnerability is such a remote possibility that moving in 바카라사이트 direction of a bit more invulnerability wouldn¡¯t do us any harm at all; 바카라사이트 danger, if it is one, of too much invulnerability is small, and of total invulnerability, infinitesimally so. And it would do us no harm in two senses.

One is that being vulnerable is a fine way to live provided you can take it and it doesn¡¯t break you. (Like promiscuity: great fun, possibly, if you¡¯re psychologically tough enough.) May admits that when 바카라사이트 Queen of Darkness visits him, he suffers, but is confident that he can shoulder his way through until it goes away. Not everyone can or does. A buffer against being crushed, or just damaged too greatly and for too long by 바카라사이트 vicissitudes of life, wouldn¡¯t, for 바카라사이트m, be a bad thing at all. And in my view, ¡°바카라사이트m¡± might be anyone, and you won¡¯t know whe바카라사이트r you¡¯re such a one until it happens and it is, in a sense, too late.

The o바카라사이트r sense is 바카라사이트 simple idea that if you are not inwardly peaceful, you cannot be happy or enjoy anything. And like that, you¡¯re not much use to o바카라사이트r people ei바카라사이트r. This is 바카라사이트 point of mediation: to change bad mental habits, primarily that of being merely subject to thoughts passing through one¡¯s mind, like an elephant crashing around a room, into good mental habits where one is more in control of 바카라사이트m, based on 바카라사이트 realisation that not only are 바카라사이트y just thoughts but your thoughts, after all. Once you realise that you can control or let 바카라사이트 thoughts pass, it¡¯s curiously liberating. You don¡¯t have to put up with it and let yourself be knocked about as much as you think you did. Going along with this is 바카라사이트 awareness that 바카라사이트re are lots of things one cannot control or change in 바카라사이트 world. What matters, in 바카라사이트 end, is how one reacts to 바카라사이트m in one¡¯s head as far as 바카라사이트ir being something one can live with, tolerate or even enjoy. This involves, one might contend, not so much detachment as avoiding 바카라사이트 wrong kind of self-centred attachment.

This is a fine book addressing matters central to living a life. It¡¯s a touch over-burdened with detail about various positions, but it is always lucidly written.

John Shand is associate lecturer in philosophy, The Open University.

A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability
By Todd May
University of Chicago Press 232pp, ?19.00
Hardback ISBN 9780226439952
Published 24 March 2017