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Article: Intellectual healing; Philosophy is not therapy. But the insights of a bunch of old dead guys can calm our emotional demons, says literary self-help author Alain de Botton.(VARIETY)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- April 29, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Happiness, we have been told, is a pursuit as important as life and liberty. We spend every spare moment seeking it, and each time we achieve what we used to think would bring it, we see that it has once again managed to slip just beyond our reach.
Along comes British author Alain de Botton with a radical new idea: Happiness is not, after all, the point. The sooner we realize this, the happier we'll be.
Actually, the idea is not radical, new or De Botton's. In "The Consolations of Philosophy," De Botton has dusted off the reasonings of several deep thinkers of yore, then turned them into first aid for such woes as frustration, broken hearts and envy.
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