![The Good-Enough Life](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
![The Good-Enough Life](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
Paperback
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. This book explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible—a good-enough life for all.
Avram Alpert shows how our obsession with greatness results in stress and anxiety, damage to our relationships, widespread political and economic inequality, and destruction of the natural world. He describes how to move beyond greatness to create a society in which everyone flourishes. By competing less with each other, each of us can find renewed meaning and purpose, have our material and emotional needs met, and begin to lead more leisurely lives. Alpert makes no false utopian promises, however. Life can never be more than good enough because there will always be accidents and tragedies beyond our control, which is why we must stop dividing the world into winners and losers and ensure that there is a fair share of decency and sufficiency to go around.
Visionary and provocative, The Good-Enough Life demonstrates how we can work together to cultivate a good-enough life for all instead of tearing ourselves apart in a race to the top of the social pyramid.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780691254685 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
Publication date: | 09/19/2023 |
Pages: | 336 |
Sales rank: | 1,027,373 |
Product dimensions: | 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 Why Greatness Is Not Good Enough 13
The Origins of "Good Enough" 17
A Long History of Overcoming Greatness 19
Recalibrating 22
The Two Economies 26
Lost Einstein Myths 30
But, Come On, Aren't There Good Forms of Greatness 33
Cold, Broken, But Still Hallelujah 35
A Good-Enough Life for All 38
2 For Our Selves 42
In the Beginning 46
It's Not Just the Economy, Stupid 48
The Return of Virtue 52
Meritocracy, No. Greatness, Maybe. 62
Virtues beyond Greatness 70
The World As It Already Is 74
Satisfaction Not Guaranteed 78
Philosophies Born of Struggle 86
3 For Our Relationships 95
Romantic Stories 100
A Circular Journey 105
A Theory of Laughter 109
The Paradoxes of Kindness to Strangers 111
To Heaven or A-fishing 116
As Zhuangzi and Huizi Were 118
We'll See 122
If This Is Good Enough 124
A Good-Enough President? 130
4 For Our World 135
The Path of Pinheads 145
The Road to Serfdom 152
The Good Enough Transformation 161
Why Philanthropy Is Not the Answer 166
Some Plans for a Good-Enough World 170
Limiting the Positional Economy 184
A Thought Experiment 195
5 For Our Planet 197
Wired for Whatever 203
Surviving the Fittest 207
Evolving to Be Good Enough 213
The Risk of Great Green Revolutions 216
More with Less, or More from Less? 221
Sharing in the Burden and the Bounty 227
A Good-Enough Relation to Nature 231
The Good-Enough Sublime 233
Conclusion 236
Acknowledgments 241
Notes 243
Bibliography 283
Index 311
What People are Saying About This
“In this delightfully inspiring book, Avram Alpert draws on virtue ethics, Buddhism, and African American philosophy to encourage us to let go of the cult of greatness. An attitude of ‘good-enoughness’ has the power to replace anxiety and burnout with more meaningful, ethical, and pleasant lives. This is the guide we all need to become good enough.”—Skye C. Cleary, author of How to Be Authentic“The Good-Enough Life is a great book. In a style that feels like a conversation among friends, Alpert makes a convincing case that it is our deep, often unspoken commitment to ‘greatness’ that stands in the way of improving the quality of our political, social, and economic lives. Learning to seek ‘good enough’ may be the key to social transformation.”—Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less“In this eclectic and enjoyable tour of ethics, politics, and aesthetics, Avram Alpert bridges philosophy and self-help to envision something that seems to be slipping from our grasp: a livable world. He shows how an inhabitable planet and an equal society depend on cultivating egalitarian virtues and pursuing the modest satisfactions of what is good enough.”—Gabriel Winant, author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America“Alpert is a kind of Carl Sagan of social egalitarianism, packing a wealth of information into an engaging page-turner. This book offers a new aspirational ideal: a good-enough way of living that can enable vastly more people to lead decent lives.”—Cheshire Calhoun, author of Doing Valuable Time: The Present, the Future, and Meaningful Living