The Cost of Comfort

Description

Philosopher John Lachs observes that humans today live lives of comfort but also sees that these comfortable lives come at a cost: our increasing unhappiness. In The Cost of Comfort, Lachs contemplates what humans need in order to live fulfilled lives in today’s world. While comfort has not always reached everyone evenly, Lachs acknowledges that most of us who live in the US today reap the benefits of modern life. We live longer, we eat better food, we have access to good medical care, and we can stay in touch with loved ones who are far away. Lachs argues that this dizzyingly complex world often inspires isolation, but he believes that deeper engagement with it is required in order to dispel our growing psychic distance. Lachs advocates for mediation and champions education, advertising, openness, and transparency to help individuals understand the role they play in society and to nullify claims to blamelessness. Lachs suggests new rules for responsibility and argues that examining and understanding the consequences of one’s actions is imperative to overcoming the ills and problems of the modern world. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Preface 1. Comfort 2. Discomfort 3. A Broken and an Integrated World 4. Complete and Dismembered Actions 5. Mediation 6. Philosophical Excursion: Hegel and Peirce on Mediation 7. Six Consequences of Mediation 8. (A) Passivity 9. (B) Impotence 10. (C) Ignorance 11. (D) Manipulation 12. (E) Psychic Distance 13. (F) Irresponsibility 14. Major Mediators: Tools 15. Major Mediators: Language 16. Major Mediators: Ideology 17. Major Mediators: Institutions 18. Major Mediators: Government 19. Mediated Immediacies 20. Eliminate Mediation? 21. Ineffective Ways of Dealing with Mediation 22. Preexisting Values 23. Advertising 24. Openness 25. Transparency 26. Education 27. The Power of Immediacy 28. Immediacy and Politics 29. New Rules of Responsibility Conclusion About the Author