In this first English translation of the prize-winning Dutch title Leven is Een Kunst, Paul van Tongeren creates a new kind of virtue ethics, one that centres on how to 'live well' in our contemporary world.

While virtue ethics is based on the moral philosophy of Aristotle, it has had many interpretations and iterations throughout history and features prominently in the thinking of the Stoics, Christian narratives and the writings of Nietzsche. The Art of Living Well explores and expands upon these traditions, using them as a basis to form a new interpretation; one that foregrounds art and creativity as paramount to the struggle to act in an authentic and moral way.

Acting as both a clear introduction to virtue ethics and moral philosophy and a serious work of original philosophy, this book connects philosophy with real lived experience and tackles, head-on, the perennial philosophical question: 'how do we live well?'

Paul van Tongeren is Professor of Moral Philosophy and Ethical Theory at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Special Professor of Ethics at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven, Belgium; and Associate Researcher at the University of Pretoria, South Africa

Thomas Heij studied philosophy at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and works as editor at the Nexus Institute

INTRODUCTION

Art

I. ETHICS AND MEANING

Attention

II HERMENEUTICS AND EXPERIENCE

Relations

III VIRTUE AND PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

Love

IV GREEK AND CHRISTIAN

Patience

V NIETZSCHE AND/OR ARISTOTLE

Shame

VI VIRTUE ETHICS IN A DISENCHANTED WORLD

Aphorisms