- By Larry Lehmann III
“To live is to be exposed to suffering.” – Kieran Setiya
In Life is Hard, philosopher Kieran Setiya offers a bold, compassionate idea: that life’s challenges aren’t detours — they’re the path. Instead of chasing a perfect life without pain, Setiya invites us to reflect on what suffering can teach us about being human.
This post explores the Introduction and Chapter 1, “Infirmity,” focusing on how Setiya reframes hardship — not as something to avoid, but something to understand and grow from.
The Myth of the “Ideal Life”
Many of us are taught to think of life as a journey with a clear destination: success, happiness, peace. This is what Setiya calls the teleological mindset — the belief that everything we do is meant to move us toward some future version of the “good life.”
But what happens when things go wrong? When we get sick, lose someone, or face mental health struggles, we often feel like we’ve failed — like we’ve fallen off the path.
Setiya challenges that idea:
What if suffering isn’t a failure, but a feature of the human experience?
What if the “good life” doesn’t mean avoiding pain, but learning how to live with it?
He proposes a “philosophy of difficulty” — a way of thinking that makes room for disappointment, imperfection, and grief. Rather than looking for a fix or escape, Setiya asks us to engage with suffering directly — not to glamorize it, but to take it seriously as part of life.
Chapter 1: “Infirmity” – Illness, Identity, and the Body
In Chapter 1, Setiya turns to a specific form of suffering: physical illness.
Drawing on his own experience with chronic pelvic pain, he explores what it means to live in a body that doesn’t function the way it used to. Pain, he says, doesn’t just hurt — it changes your experience of time, disrupts your daily life, and isolates you from others.
More importantly, it challenges a long-standing assumption in Western philosophy:
that the mind is who we really are, and the body is just a container.
Setiya argues:
We are our bodies — not just minds floating around in shells.
Illness makes us confront that reality, sometimes painfully.
When our bodies change or break down, our sense of self is shaken.
He also draws from disability studies and activist voices, showing that the problem isn’t just physical suffering — it’s also how society treats people with illness or disability. Often, they’re ignored, isolated, or viewed as “less than” — not because of their condition, but because of cultural stigma.
3 Key Philosophical Takeaways
1. Suffering Is Not a Detour — It’s Part of the Journey
Setiya reminds us that struggle is not a sign of failure. It’s a natural part of life, and sometimes, it’s the part that teaches us the most.
We don’t need to romanticize pain. But we also shouldn’t ignore or deny it.
To live well, we have to live honestly — including the hard parts.
2. The Body Is Central to the Self
Illness reveals how deeply connected we are to our physical selves. Setiya’s pain isn’t just an obstacle — it’s part of his identity now. This leads to big questions:
Are we still “ourselves” when our bodies change?
How do we hold on to identity when our lives look and feel different than before?
3. Compassion Is a Practice, Not Just a Feeling
Setiya draws on Simone Weil, who saw suffering as a path to truth. When we suffer, we’re forced to confront the reality of human limitation — in ourselves and others. This can lead to something powerful: compassion.
Not pity, but a deep recognition of another person’s pain — and the choice to be present with them in it.
Final Thoughts
Life is Hard isn’t a book about fixing suffering — it’s about living through it with thoughtfulness, courage, and care.
Setiya doesn’t pretend pain is noble or beautiful. But he also refuses to treat it like an error or a curse. Pain is real. Pain is human. And if we want a philosophy that’s worthy of life as it’s actually lived — not just as we wish it were — then we have to start with that truth.
“The task is not to eliminate suffering, but to understand what it asks of us.”
– Kieran Setiya
By bringing the body back into philosophy, and putting compassion at its center, Setiya gives us a way to think — and live — that’s more honest, more inclusive, and maybe even more hopeful.
Two Big Questions to Reflect On
1. Is suffering necessary for meaning?
Can a life without hardship still be fulfilling? Or is pain — as difficult as it is — part of what makes love, resilience, and joy matter?
2. Does illness change who we are?
If our bodies shape our identity, what happens when they change? Are we still the same “self” through sickness, disability, or aging?
Good. Elaborate just a bit on at least one of your major themes, and insert a few relevant links... for instance, on chronic pain and how people have learned to deal with it when medical science could not help, on the importance of embodiment for philosophy and for self-identity, on the relation between suffering and personal character, etc.
ReplyDeleteA recent bestseller you might mention, for example, is "The Body Keeps the Score"... You might say more about how the experience of pain confounds Descartes-like versions of mind-body dualism. Consider "Descartes' Error" for example... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/103867.Descartes_Error