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On Kindness (Hardcover)

by Adam Phillips (Author), Barbara Taylor (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (1 Jan 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0241144337
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241144336
  • Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 13 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 170,237 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

The pleasures of kindness have been well known since the dawn of Western thought. Kindness, declared Marcus Aurelius, was mankind's 'greatest delight' - and centuries-worth of thinkers and writers have echoed him. But today many people seem to find these pleasures literally incredible. Instead of embracing the benefits of kindness, as a species we seem to be becoming deeply and fundamentally antagonistic to each other, with motives that are generally self-seeking.This book explains how and why this has come about, and argues that the affectionate life - a life lived in instinctive sympathetic identification with the vulnerabilities and attractions of others - is the one we should all be inclined to live. 'We mutually belong to one another,' as the philosopher Alan Ryan writes, and the good life is one 'that reflects this truth'. What the Victorians called 'open-heartedness' and the Christians 'caritas' remains essential to our emotional and mental health, for reasons both obvious and hidden, argue the authors of this elegant and indispensable exploration of the concept of kindness.


About the Author

Adam Phillips is a psychoanalyst and the author of twelve previous books, all widely acclaimed, including On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored, Going Sane and most recently Side Effects. Barbara Taylor is a historian who has published several well-known books on the history of feminism, including an award-winning study of nineteenth-century socialist feminism, Eve and the New Jerusalem, and an intellectual biography of the pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A revelatory history and vital guide for our time, 6 Feb 2009
By Ms. P. Sebag-montefiore (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The authors see kindness as an essential part of what makes us human, what unites us with others; and as one of humanity's greatest pleasures, essential for our health, relationships and society. But, they detect, we have become afraid of strangers, of showing kindness and seeing kindness in others, in those close to us too.

The book explores how we are let down by the ways we think about kindness and uncovers an enlightening, hopeful and deeply resonant way for us to understand and imagine kindness.

This small book moved me to tears, stirred me to listen closer to my instincts, and made me want to give it to as many people I can.
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24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Slighter in build than I expected, 13 Jan 2009
By S. J. Smith "Simon de Region 2" (Nottingham, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Since I'd not checked, I expected this book to be more substantial than it actually is. At only 117 pages that's nearly 8p a page. However the book does have a sturdy hardback binding and a narrow silky bookmark sewn into the spine.

I bought this as an antidote to the modern dawkinsian view that we're all selfish and the gainful end always justifies the means, nomatter how machievellean.

It was featured in the Guardian's Review supplement, and I was rather attracted to all the allusions to great philosophers. As such I was expecting something slightly more academic and deeper. Instead it skims gently across the surface like a swallow skimming a millpond in summer.

In other words this book is not a philosophy or psychology textbook, in spite of the authors' qualifications and background, but ought to suit most readers, especially those who remember more courteous times. And, perhaps, it would provide some food for ethical thought for those who don't.

But then, I suppose, the latter type will probably just nick a copy from the library.
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15 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars elegant manifesto, 10 Jan 2009
By Sarah Knott (Bloomington, U.S.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A beautifully written manifesto in favor of the lost art - and pleasure - of kindness.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Unimpressed
As a previous reviewer mentioned this is an extremely slim offering. It seems to seek to display the reading lists of the authors rather than clearly define or properly evaluate... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jim

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