[Edward Hopper, “Automat”]
At Shepherd, a book recommendation site, philosopher Michael Cholbi (Edinburgh) discusses his own book, Grief: A Philosophical Guide, and a few other works by philosophers he thinks can provide readers with an “emotional compass” to help “navigate the perennial challenges that being human presents us.”
These include books by Charlie Kurth (Western Michigan) on anxiety, Krista K. Thomason (Swarthmore) on shame, and Jennifer Gaffney (Loyola Chicago) on loneliness, among others. You can check out his remarks about them here.
In light of… everything, this seems like a theme worth expanding on, so I invite readers to share books and articles by philosophers they’ve read that they think offer something that can be of use for people experiencing emotionally challenging times. I’d ask of readers that the works they recommend:
- be not just about some challenging emotion or type of difficult experience, but helpful in some way or another for someone grappling with that emotion or experience, and
- be written in the past 50 years, so as to avoid trite suggestions and, with luck, to give exposure to some underappreciated writing.
Thank you.
