The News

An okay, but not great, pop philosophy book from Alain de Botton, premiere pop philosopher for the posh. I always kinda enjoy, kinda get exasperated by de Botton's books: he has some inspired moments of interpreting philosophy for contemporary audiences. He also has a bunch of moments that feel like a pile o' privileged, naive bricks.

This book is, well, like the others. First, to his credit, he wrote this Before The Madness (i.e. before fake news was accused of ruining American democracy ho ho), and so much of the book feels like it was beamed from an alternative universe of pastoral English innocence. But that ain't his fault. Second, to his detriment, the book's a bit blathery - with the final chapters feeling rushed and even a bit half-assed. I have higher standards than this!

Maybe the best chapter was the bit about ‘received wisdom'; he lists some of Flaubert's annoyances at newspaper-driven ‘received wisdom' (which were all REALLY GOOD), and then speculated on some modern received wisdom too. All of them felt incisive and true.