What will I learn about: how physical pain and limitations don't have to ruin your life, but can instead serve as powerful teachers of empathy and compassion?

Discover how physical pain and limitations don't have to ruin your life, but can instead serve as powerful teachers of empathy and compassion.

What will I learn about: why loneliness hurts like physical pain by recognizing how isolation deprives you of your inherent dignity and unconditional value?

Understand why loneliness hurts like physical pain by recognizing how isolation deprives you of your inherent dignity and unconditional value.

What will I learn about: Learn to combat loneliness by taking small, outward-focused steps to connect with others, rather than focusing purely on what they can do to cure your isolation?

Learn to combat loneliness by taking small, outward-focused steps to connect with others, rather than focusing purely on what they can do to cure your isolation.

What will I learn about: why grief doesn't follow predictable stages and how embracing cultural mourning rituals can help you navigate its chaotic, unpredictable waves?

Find out why grief doesn't follow predictable stages and how embracing cultural mourning rituals can help you navigate its chaotic, unpredictable waves.

What will I learn about: Embrace grief and emotional suffering as the inevitable price of loving deeply, realizing that these hardships are a meaningful part of living well that should be endured rather than avoided?

Embrace grief and emotional suffering as the inevitable price of loving deeply, realizing that these hardships are a meaningful part of living well that should be endured rather than avoided.

Life Is Hard

How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way

Kieran Setiya

★ 4.0 / 5(393 ratings)

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Categories:

Mindfulness & Happiness Philosophy

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

💡Have you ever wondered why the very hardships we try to avoid—like failure and loneliness—might actually be the keys to living a more authentic life?
💡What if the secret to navigating life's most painful moments isn't about finding a way to be 'happy,' but about learning a different way to be human?
💡Are you curious about how centuries of philosophical wisdom can help you find meaning and resilience even when life feels relentlessly unfair?

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Key Takeaways from Life Is Hard

✓Discover how physical pain and limitations don't have to ruin your life, but can instead serve as powerful teachers of empathy and compassion.
✓Understand why loneliness hurts like physical pain by recognizing how isolation deprives you of your inherent dignity and unconditional value.
✓Learn to combat loneliness by taking small, outward-focused steps to connect with others, rather than focusing purely on what they can do to cure your isolation.
✓Find out why grief doesn't follow predictable stages and how embracing cultural mourning rituals can help you navigate its chaotic, unpredictable waves.
✓Embrace grief and emotional suffering as the inevitable price of loving deeply, realizing that these hardships are a meaningful part of living well that should be endured rather than avoided.

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from Life Is Hard

Mind Map

Life Is Hard

Core Philosophy+

Infirmity & Pain+

Loneliness+

Grief+

Failure+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 7

What is Kieran Setiya's primary conclusion about living with chronic pain or disability?

A. It inevitably renders life meaningless unless a medical cure is found.
B. It prevents one from enjoying any aspect of life, requiring constant distraction.
C. It restricts certain activities but does not prevent a person from finding value and enjoyment in other parts of life.
D. It can be completely overcome by adopting a positive mindset and ignoring the physical symptoms.

Question 2 of 7

How does Immanuel Kant's philosophy explain why loneliness is so painful, in contrast to Aristotle's view?

A. Loneliness occurs when we lose the specific virtues that initially attracted our friends.
B. Loneliness deprives us of interactions that validate our unconditional value, or 'dignity.'
C. Loneliness is a physical ailment that can only be cured by finding friends with higher moral virtues.
D. Loneliness happens because we treat our friends as objects with a 'price' rather than equals.

Question 3 of 7

According to the text, what is the most effective approach to curing loneliness?

A. Focusing heavily on self-improvement to increase your personal virtues and attract better friends.
B. Seeking out people who can directly help you overcome your feelings of isolation.
C. Engaging in small, outward-focused acts of connection, like volunteering or helping a neighbor.
D. Isolating yourself temporarily to build emotional resilience against social rejection.

Question 4 of 7

Why does the author highlight B.S. Johnson's experimental novel 'The Unfortunates' when discussing grief?

A. To demonstrate that grief follows a predictable set of psychological stages.
B. To show that the pain of grief can be completely avoided through creative expression.
C. To illustrate that grief is chaotic, unpredictable, and lacks a linear storyline.
D. To prove that mourning rituals are unnecessary for those who understand literature.

Question 5 of 7

What is the book's ultimate perspective on the suffering caused by grief?

A. It is a temporary phase that can be bypassed by recognizing the inevitability of death.
B. It is a sign of an unhealthy attachment that should be managed through therapy.
C. It is an unnecessary burden that prevents us from moving forward with our lives.
D. It is a natural consequence of loving well and is a suffering we should hope to endure rather than avoid.

Question 6 of 7

How does trying to fit our lives into a 'linear narrative' contribute to our experience of failure?

A. It makes us focus too much on the granular, everyday details of life.
B. It sets us up for disappointment because life is actually a jumbled multitude of successes and failures.
C. It prevents us from setting ambitious goals or caring about the results of our actions.
D. It forces us to dwell entirely on the process rather than the final destination.

Question 7 of 7

What advice does the text draw from the Bhagavad Gita to help protect us from the hardship of failure?

A. We should focus on the process and the journey rather than the final results of our actions.
B. We should lower our expectations so that we are never disappointed by the outcome.
C. We should remember that failures are just illusions and have no real impact on our lives.
D. We should aggressively pursue success to outweigh any past mistakes we have made.

Life Is Hard — Full Chapter Overview

1Recommendation
21 — Lessons learned from a bathroom floor
32 — Easing loneliness at the soup kitchen
43 — After love comes grief
54 — Don’t dwell on the failures
65 — Final summary

Life Is Hard Summary & Overview

Life Is Hard (2022) takes a close look at common struggles – like infirmity, loneliness, grief, and failure – through the lens of philosophy, as well as fiction, sports, history, and personal anecdotes. By examining the familiar hardships of the human condition, we can learn how to live well.

Who Should Listen to Life Is Hard?

Anyone feeling overwhelmed by the hardships and injustice across the globe
People trying to cope with personal struggles
Fans of practical, accessible philosophy

About the Author: Kieran Setiya

Kieran Setiya is a professor of philosophy at MIT. His writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the TLS, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Aeon, and the Yale Review. He is also the author of Midlife.

Life Is Hard

If You're Curious About These Questions...

Listen to Life Is Hard — Free Audiobook

Key Takeaways from Life Is Hard

Learning Tools

Mind Map

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Life Is Hard — Full Chapter Overview

Life Is Hard Summary & Overview

Who Should Listen to Life Is Hard?

About the Author: Kieran Setiya

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