Things That Bother Me by Galen Strawson (Book Summary) | Sloww

We are never more (and sometimes less) than the co-authors of our own narratives. —Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

And reality matters because it is the only thing that can satisfy us.

If you really thought life would never end, he argues, then nothing could ever genuinely matter, because you’d never be faced with having to decide whether or not to use a portion of your precious life on something. ‘If I believed that my life would last forever,’ Hägglund writes, ‘I could never take my life to be at stake, and I would never be sei

But (don’t worry!) we won’t be dwelling here on my personal hang-ups. The universal truth behind my specific issues is that most of us invest a lot of energy, one way or another, in trying to avoid fully experiencing the reality in which we find ourselves.

I want to look at the role that an awareness of death might play in our project of living more happily. Whilst self-help books typically focus on setting goals to fill your life with everything you want in order to find happiness, you’ll understand by now my approach foregoes such questionable methods. We’ll aim for something richer and less neurot

But (don’t worry!) we won’t be dwelling here on my personal hang-ups. The universal truth behind my specific issues is that most of us invest a lot of energy, one way or another, in trying to avoid fully experiencing the reality in which we find ourselves. We don’t want to feel the anxiety that might arise if we were to ask ourselves whether we’re