How Should We Live? summary

Did you know that the word “husband” originally derived from a combination of “house” and “bound”? Originally, it referred to a man whose work was based around the home, much like a “housewife,” the woman with whom he would share domestic duties.

Yet, over time, changes in social conventions pulled the husband away from his original position.

We’ve all done something selfish. Maybe you took the last piece of pizza at that company meeting or “forgot” to make a donation to your friend’s Kickstarter. Selfishness can be a natural human quality – so natural, in fact, that some have argued it’s our defining quality.

In his book Leviathan, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes argues that people are naturally selfish and cruel, and that life is a contest of person against person. Hobbes’s pessimistic view of life proved incredibly popular and has influenced much of Western thinking.

Have you ever assembled a piece of Ikea furniture, or even just a Lego set? It can be frustrating at times, but there’s also something deeply satisfying about building something yourself from start to finish. And before the Industrial Revolution, almost everything was produced by individual craftspeople. A cobbler made the whole shoe; a tailor, the whole shirt.

This all changed, however with the division of labor. In the eighteenth century, the economist Adam Smith argued that the best way to increase productivity was by dividing complex work into stages. He devised the model of the pin factory, where the individual stages of production – such as polishing or smelting – were divided among workers, increasing productivity from 1 pin per day to almost 5,000.

It’s difficult to imagine a world without time. A world where you couldn’t arrange a meeting, let alone be sure how old you are. Time seems like a natural part of things, but it wasn’t properly measured until the ancient world needed a way to help track agricultural cycles. Since then, there have been three major developments, each of which helped form our modern relationship to time.

First came the invention of the mechanical clock, back in thirteenth-century Europe. Initially used to notify monks when to pray, clocks were soon installed in town centers, and shops began to schedule their hours of operation around them. In 1370, one was built in Cologne, Germany, and within four years it was dictating the start and end of workers’ days, as well as a one-hour lunch break. Sound familiar?

Until the mid-eighteenth century, a consumer was someone who was wasteful, and consumption was another word for tuberculosis, a disease that causes the body to waste away.

What we know as consumerism developed with industrialization. During this period, more people were able to accumulate wealth and, as a consequence of this, more products were produced for them to expend it on. This development redefined our perception of money, and material possessions became status symbols signifying wealth.

Although the ancient Greek philosopher Plato believed in many senses – such as the sense of temperature perception – his student Aristotle believed in an overarching symmetry. Aristotle posited that, since there were five elements (fire, air, water, earth and ether), there must only be five senses.

But, recently, scientists have been able to confirm Plato’s idea of temperature perception, now known as thermoception. And it doesn’t stop there. They’ve also identified a sense of balance, equilibrioception, and even magnetoreception, an ability – albeit extremely weak – to detect magnetic fields, much like homing pigeons.

In the nineteenth century, English preacher Thomas Cook organized a trip from Leicester to Loughborough for poor workers to attend a temperance meeting. Five hundred people attended, which inspired him to organize further tours to Europe, the general goal being to open people up to travel and expand their worldviews.

Unfortunately, his son, a man with less laudable ambitions, eventually took control. He focused on wealthy clients, expensive routes and an overindulgence in leisure, thus giving birth to the modern travel industry.

We all know that longing feeling for beautiful landscapes or wildlife. But why are we so attached to nature?

Today, nature serves as a source of three things: beauty, psychological health and natural resources.

Every one of us holds some sort of belief. Some people believe that monarchies should be abolished. Others feel it’s important not to eat meat. Still more believe that neither of these things is of any interest compared to religion. But where do all these beliefs come from?

They are the personal values against which we judge the goodness or harm of a particular action, and they shape our relationship with the world. But we rarely question beliefs’ validity.

Perhaps you’ve felt the joy of learning to play your favorite song on the piano. Or maybe you’ve had the satisfaction of baking a delicious cake for your whole family. If so, then you understand the pleasure of creating.

The word creativity comes from creare, the Latin for “to make or produce,” and it is a vital part of evolutionary activity.

Death was once part and parcel of daily life.

The memento mori – Latin for “remember you must die” – was once an important icon. Consisting of a skull depicted on jewelry and in portraits and within churches, it reminded people of their mortality and equality in the face of death.