Up@dawn 2.0 (blogger)

Delight Springs

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Comment on summer freshman read: "Life is in the Transitions"

If you have thoughts about this book, or about Bruce Feiler's Saturday convocation address (here's his substack post about it, along with the video; and here's my note about it), please share them in comments below. Feiler got his title, by the way, from my favorite philosopher:
“Life is in the transitions as much as in the terms connected; often, indeed, it seems to be there more emphatically, as if our spurts and sallies forward were the real firing-line of the battle, were like the thin line of flame advancing across the dry autumnal field which the farmer proceeds to burn,” William James wrote in 1904’s “A World of Pure Experience.”

"Life is in the Transitions" is also the name of Harvard's  Houghton Library exhibit devoted to exploring James's philosophy.

Man’s Search for Meaning has gone on to sell over twelve million copies. Viktor Frankl’s message was that even in the face of unimaginable bleakness, humans can find hope. “You do not have to suffer to learn, but if you don’t learn from suffering . . . then your life becomes truly meaningless.” The key, he said, is to imagine a better time, to have a reason to live. He quotes Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
― Bruce Feiler, Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”. —CHARLES DARWIN

2 comments:

  1. Hello, name is Aya Harkins and I am a psychology major! This is my freshman year, and I am very excited to be here at MTSU. My personal philosophy has always been to embrace collaboration. I strongly believe in personal energies and coming together is one way to reach our full capabilities ourselves.

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  2. # 13 I thought that this book had many ups and downs in relation to the level of interest I had in it. At times I felt that he could've been far more concise about some the ideas he had. Other times I was very fascinated with his stories of the people that he met. I found it interesting that a fair share of the stories were deeply grounded in personal internal beliefs, primarily religious. It seemed that religion was always either the cause or solution of their problems, never in between. Why does religion have such a dramatic effect to either side?

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