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His soon to be published book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is the subject of his first talk in Australia since 2006.
Writing it saw him travel across the world for two years with a photographer in tow, looking at people in their workplaces and reflecting on the great themes of work: why do we do it? How can it be more bearable? What is a meaningful life?
With a philosophical eye and his characteristic combination of wit and wisdom, Alain leads us on a journey around a deliberately eclectic range of occupations, from rocket science to biscuit manufacture, accountancy to art – in search of what make jobs either fulfilling or soul-destroying. Here is the perfect guide to the vicious anxieties and enticing hopes thrown up by our journey through the working world.
According to Alain, his talk will “amount to a celebration and investigation of an activity as central to a good life as love – but which we often find remarkably hard to reflect on properly. Most of us are still working at jobs chosen for us by our sixteen-year-old selves.”
Exploring such diverse subjects as travel, habitat, philosophy, status anxiety in an accessible and stimulating manner De Botton, has, through his books and TV shows, become internationally famous for popularising a new approach to a ‘philosophy of everyday life’. |
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Biography
Swiss born and educated at Cambridge, Alain de Botton has published five non-fiction books; The Architecture of Happiness, Status Anxiety, The Art of Travel, How Proust Can Change Your Life,The Consolations of Philosophy, and the soon to be published, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, three of which were made into TV documentaries.
He has also published three novels: Essays in Love, The Romantic Movement, and Kiss and Tell. In February 2003, de Botton was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, one of France’s highest artistic honours. In November of the same year, he was awarded the Prix Européen de l’Essai Charles Veillon. In 2004, Status Anxiety was awarded the prize for the Economics Book of the Year by the Financial Times, Germany. De Botton regularly contributes to English newspapers such as The Independent and helps to run the production company Seneca Productions.
He lives in London where he is Director of the Graduate Philosophy Program at London University. In August 2008, he was a founder member of a new educational establishment in central London called The School of Life. |
