A Map to the End of Time – Wayfarings with Friends & Philosophers: Wayfarings with Friends and Philosophers - Hardcover

Manheimer, Ronald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393047253 ISBN 13: 9780393047257

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 2000

Synopsis

Ronald Manheimer began to teach philosophy to a group of senior citizens in the hope that their experiences might help connect him to the great philosphical ideas and clarify his thoughts about aging and mortality. His conversations with his students and others around him provide him with dazzling new insight into his own life and his place in the world. A gifted teacher and philosopher, Manheimer's recounting of his class' discussions are playful and profound. When some of Manheimer's younger students take part in the class' philosphical search, an interesting fusion of generations and ideas occurs. Manheimer, his students and the reader all come closer to understanding that becoming a self is to become a citizen of the world of interconnected ideas and beliefs. In these tales which explore answers to life's Big Questions, Manheimer reinvigorates the ancient tradition of using storytelling to explore truth. Showing how ideas and lives can illuminate one another, his engaging narratives address these questions while providing an inviting exploration of the ideas of thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Kierkegaard, John Stuart Mill and Martin Buber.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Teaching philosophy to retired people should be a path to wisdom, Ron Manheimer thought. He was right, but in unexpected fashion. His lively Socratic "dialogues" with older people led him into hilarious and provocative conversations with a colorful cast of fellow seekers: from his bon vivant Danish mentor Augie Nielsen to his strong-willed elderly student Hildegard, from his ironic teenaged daughter Esther to his wisecracking Uncle Joe, a master of the jewish joke. Like James Carse in Breakfast at the Victory, Manheimer reinvigorates the ancient tradition of using storytelling to explore truth. What is romantic love? How do we shape the stories we tell ourselves about our own pasts? Does the purpose of life become clearer in old age? How do we find common meanings across religious, ethnic, and generational divides? What is the essence of a person? What does it mean to live a "full" life? Showing how ideas and lives can illuminate one another, Manheimer's engaging narratives address these questions while providing an inviting exploration of the ideas of thinkers from Plato to Aristotle to Kierkegaard, John Stuart Mill, and Martin Buber.

About the Author

Ronald J. Manheimer is research associate professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and executive director of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393047253
• ISBN 13: 9780393047257
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352