Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blascko talk to John Koethe about The Good Life Method - on sale today

Virtual events are back! We have one great one this week.

Wednesday, January 5, 7 pm
Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko, authors of The Good Life Method : Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning
in conversation with John Koethe
Register for this virtual event here.

Boswell is happy to host a virtual evening featuring Sullivan and Blaschko, two Notre Dame Professors of Philosophy who’ve joined forces in a new book to ask (and answer!) the big questions about the search for faith and happiness. In conversation with John Koethe, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at UWM. 

We're thrilled to be hosting this event - Paul may be an Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame now, but we'll always be proud to call him a former Boswellian, He was a bookselling colleague while obtaining a philosophy degree at UWM. 

Sullivan and Blaschko teach God and the Good Life, a course that is hugely popular both on campus and with alumni at Notre Dame, and Sullivan has received a Mellon Grant to develop this curriculum for institutions around the country. Now they invite us into the classroom in their book to work through issues like what justifies our beliefs, whether we should practice a religion and what sacrifices we should make for others - as well as to investigate what figures such as Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, and WEB Du Bois have to say about how to live well.

From Publishers Weekly's starred review: "Philosophy can supply the methods” for living a good life, according to this wise and accessible guide. Notre Dame philosophy professors Sullivan (Time Biases) and Blaschko bring to the page their course on applying philosophy to one’s life plans, covering the works of such thinkers as Plato, Søren Kierkegaard, William James, and Elizabeth Anscombe to provide a philosophical foundation in virtue ethics."

From Kirkus, noting this book originated in a course: "Their aim, they write, was to help students to live more intentionally and to take agency and responsibility for their choices. Drawing on the content and pedagogy of that course, the authors offer a warm, empathetic guide for examining the quality and meaning of one’s own life."

From Mindy McGinnis's blog, McGinnis poses the questions. McGinnis appeared at Boswell for one of her YA novels.

Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Chair in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, director of the God and the Good Life Program, and director of the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. Paul Blaschko is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame and heads up curriculum design and digital pedagogy for the God and the Good Life Program. Locally notably, Blaschko completed an MA in philosophy at the UWM. John Koethe is the author of books on Wittgenstein and philosophical scepticism, and eleven books of poetry, most recently Walking Backwards: Poems 1966 - 2016.

Copies of The Good Life Method are available for sale at 20% off through at least January 11. In-store pickup or shipping is available. We offer $5 media mail shipping within Wisconsin. Ask for your signed bookplate.

Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko's photo credit is Barbara Johnston.

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