{"product_id":"ars-vitae-the-fate-of-inwardness-and-the-return-of-the-ancient-arts-of-living-9780268108892","title":"Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living","description":"\u003cp\u003eDespite the flood of self-help guides and our current therapeutic culture  feelings of alienation and spiritual longing continue to grip modern society. In this book  Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn offers a fresh solution: a return to classic philosophy and the cultivation of an inner life. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero wrote that philosophy is ars vitae  the art of living. Today  signs of stress and duress point to a full-fledged crisis for individuals and communities while current modes of making sense of our lives prove inadequate. Yet  in this time of alienation and spiritual longing  we can glimpse signs of a renewed interest in ancient approaches to the art of living. In this ambitious and timely book  Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn engages both general readers and scholars on the topic of well-being. She examines the reappearance of ancient philosophical thought in contemporary American culture  probing whether new stirrings of Gnosticism  Stoicism  Epicureanism  Cynicism  and Platonism present a true alternative to our current therapeutic culture of self-help and consumerism  which elevates the selfs needs and desires yet fails to deliver on its promises of happiness and healing. Do the ancient philosophies represent a counter-tradition to todays culture  auguring a new cultural vibrancy  or do they merely solidify a modern way of life that has little use for inwardnessthe cultivation of an inner lifestemming from those older traditions? Tracing the contours of this cultural resurgence and exploring a range of sources  from scholarship to self-help manuals  films  and other artifacts of popular culture  this book sees the different schools as organically interrelated and asks whether  taken together  they can point us in important new directions. Ars Vitae sounds a clarion call to take back philosophy as part of our everyday lives. It proposes a way to do so  sifting through the ruins of long-forgotten and recent history alike for any shards helpful in piecing together the coherence of a moral framework that allows us ways to move forward toward the life we want and need.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647196815413,"sku":"ByrdShop_0268108897","price":25.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780268108892.jpg?v=1781689726","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/ars-vitae-the-fate-of-inwardness-and-the-return-of-the-ancient-arts-of-living-9780268108892","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}