Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life (Tanner Lectures on Human Values)

200 Pages·2000·0.59 MB·English

by  Jonathan Lear

H A P P I N E S S , D E A T H ,
A N D T H E R E M A I N D E R
O F L I F E
TheTannerLecturesonHumanValues

(cid:1)
JONATHAN LEAR
H A P P I N E S S , D E A T H ,
A N D T H E R E M A I N D E R
O F L I F E
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England 2000
Copyright©2000bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Fourthprinting,2001
FirstHarvardUniversityPresspaperbackedition,2001
PermissiontoquotefromFranzKafka’s“TheGreatWallofChina,”inthe
Everyman’sLibraryeditionoftheCollectedStories(1993),grantedby
AlfredA.Knopf,Inc.,adivisionofRandomHouse,Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Lear,Jonathan.
Happiness,death,andtheremainderoflife/JonathanLear.
p.cm.—(TheTannerlecturesonhumanvalues)
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p. )andindex.
ISBN0-674-00329-2(cloth)
ISBN0-674-00674-7(pbk.)
1.Psychoanalysisandphilosophy.2.Ethics.3.Freud,Sigmund,1856–1939.
4.Aristotle.I.Title.II.Tannerlecturesonhumanvalues(Cambridge,Mass.)
BF175.4.P45L422000
150.19(cid:1)5—dc21 00-039705
FOR BERNARD AND PATRICIA WILLIAMS

C O N T E N T S
1 Happiness 1
2 Death 61
3 TheRemainderofLife 106
Notes 167
Acknowledgments 183
Index 187

Humannature,essentiallychangeable,unstableasthedust,
canendurenorestraint;ifitbindsitselfitsoonbeginstotear
madlyatitsbonds,untilitrendseverythingasunder,thewall,
thebonds,anditsveryself.
—FRANZ KAFKA,“TheGreatWallofChina”