Guiding Youth to the Good Life
March 6, 2021
Reading the great books is hard work. Anyone tackling the classics could be forgiven for occasionally wondering if the preservation of tradition, the refinement of taste, and the admiration of colleagues at the next cocktail party are really worth the effort. But when obligation, pride, and even pleasure no longer persuade, one motivation often remains: the yearning for the good life, and the sense that great books can direct us towards it.
As Richard Morley Myers illustrates in Thinking About Happiness: What Young People Can Learn About Life from the Classics of Western Philosophy, it is this basic craving for a sense of purpose that can perhaps best draw the next generation to great philosophy and literature. So many young adults today are desperate for guidance but surrounded by adults unwilling or incapable of providing it. Thinking About Happiness reminds us that while the ignorance and fashionable errors of our generation may pass, the wisdom of the classics will endure.
