In Love with Life

John Lachs is that rarest of academics: respected by his colleagues, revered by his students, and relevant to his contemporaries, he has written yet another book which deserves to be read and reflected on by all thoughtful persons. In Love With Life (Vanderbilt University Press, 1998), like his earlier books including Intermediate Man and The Relevance of Philosophy for Life, radiates a philosophical acuity which is at once both classic and timely in its application to the perennial human challenge of living a good life. It is an antidote to the glum sensibility of existential despair, deconstructive irony, and trendy "postmodern" nihilism which has given philosophy a bad name of late. Far from being "nauseated" and repelled by the small perceptual details of everyday experience, Lachs invites us all to notice the intrinsic occasions for delight and wonder in the most ordinary natural events, right down to "the bug that walks across the kitchen floor." Such a suggestion might, from a lesser writer, seem saccharine; indeed, the recent spate of books urging our attentiveness to the majesty of the everyday and the ordinary, and promoting half-baked Zen preoccupations, often is treacly and undigestible. But Lachs makes it more than palatable, challenging us to infuse our present with keen interest, anticipation, and expansive fellow-feeling. "No one has seen next spring. No one knows what splendid music will make [life] sweeter soon." In Love With Life makes splendid music, and its keynotes of delight, energy, vibrancy, and hope linger sweetly in a prose that dances and sings.