About this item
It is perhaps our noblest cause, and certainly one of our oldest: to end suffering. Think of the Buddha, Chuang Tzu, or Marcus Aurelius: stoically composed figures impervious to the torments of the wider world, living their lives in complete serenity - and teaching us how to do the same. After all, isn't a life free from suffering the ideal? Isn't it what so many of us seek? Absolutely not, argues Todd May in this provocative but compassionate book. In a moving examination of life and the trials that beset it, he shows that our fragility, our ability to suffer, is actually one of the most important aspects of our humanity. May starts with a simple but hard truth: suffering is inevitable. At the most basic level, we suffer physically - a sprained ankle or a bad back.
About the Author
Todd May is a political philosopher notable for his role in developing, alongside Saul Newman and Lewis Call, the theory of post-structuralist anarchism. [1] He is currently Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University and contributes to CounterPunch. His 1994 book The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism was the first to combine poststructuralist and anarchist thought, and he subsequently has published treatments of major poststructuralist philosophers, including Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. He serves as faculty adviser for several student-run political organizations
