Creating the Good Life :Applying Aristotle's Wisdom to Find Meaning and Happiness

I had my attention drawn to this work by a reference to it in a Charles Handy book, and as I trust his judgement I bought the book. I was not disappointed. For the very first time I understood Aristotle and his philosophical approach to life in general, I have even gone back to his original works and I found greater insight and enjoyment. Creating the good life is not a dry exposition of Aristotelian ideas, its a very personal and relevent application of his ideas into the modern setting. The themes are revealed by James O'Toole explaining his own struggles and assumptions, how one moment he thinks he has 'got it' and the next he has to re-think, but each time moving forward exposing the fallacies of his previous views on life. If you are in mid life and are still searching for purpose then taking the time to absorb these ideas will at least provide you with a route map of discovery

The book is a recast of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics which was summarized ih Mortimer Adler's Time of Our Lives. What James O'Toole does well is to weave his personal story and struggles with these issues in a language and context of today. I found this personal view refreshing and move Aristotle's theory to a very practical level. The book is clearly aimed at baby boomers, like himself, who are struggling with meaning and unfulfilled career aspirations. Personally, O'Toole's writing got me to think more about the question of whether all vices are "fun and exciting" and all virtue is "boring". The book is easy to ready and allows one to access easily Aristotle's important writings. I recommend it for anyone struggling with these issues. P.B. Boston, MA

Perhaps you're now asking the same question I once did: "Given the fact that he lived almost 2,400 years ago, what could Aristotle possibly have to say that is directly relevant to me?" In fact, a great deal. So many of us today -- especially those at mid-life -- are engaged in a search to find meaning and happiness. We often ask, as Peggy Lee once did, "Is that all there is?" The purpose of this book is show how Aristotle is an effective guide on that search, and how he can help each of us find our own practical answer to a critically important question, "What's next?" In an interview to appear in the July/August (2005) issue of Chamber Executive magazine, O'Toole observes that "Aristotle was the most practical of all great philosophers. His audience was the business and political leadership of his day. He offered them wisdom they could apply in their own lives -- practical advice on matters ranging from ethical business practices to effective philanthropy. Aristotle even describes 'virtuous non-retirement' -- the lifelong commitment to engage in leisure work which is characterized by pursuit of the 'highest good' of individual excellence and the 'complete good' of community service. He offers practical tests to help us determine how much wealth we need to support us while we engage in those activities." O'Toole goes on to say, "So my challenge was not making Aristotle relevant to today's successful professionals and managers; instead, I faced the nearly impossible task of making his difficult language clear to modern readers [begin italics] without dumbing it down [end italics]. I had to find a way to explore the depth and complexity of Aristotle in a way that makes sense in an age of sound bites and blogs. After all, who ever heard of a [begin italics] serious [end italics] self-help book? But that's what I set out to write." As O'Toole explains in this book, Aristotle struggled with many of the same difficult circumstances (more than two centuries ago) which most of us face in 2005: "...in his career as a teacher and a consultant to leaders of ancient Athens, Aristotle thought long and hard about what it means to live a good life and how much it takes to finance it. His thoughts on this matter are particularly applicable today, given the baby boom generation's anxiety over insufficient retirement savings and shaky investments: Aristotle shows how we can find happiness at almost any level of income. Moreover, he argues that the ability to find true contentment correlates only tangentially with the amount of money one has cached away. Unlike so many of today's `life advisors,' Aristotle integrates financial planning with the broader task of life planning." Throughout human history, there has been a constant challenge to get lifestyle and quality of life in appropriate balance. As O'Toole notes, "Aristotelian ethics concern moral decisions related to how we should allocate the limited time of our lives. We must each plan how we will all