Svend Brinkmann 
Standpoints 
10 Old Ideas In a New World

Self-help gurus, life coaches and business consultants love to tell us that we must strive for constant self-improvement to realize our full potential and become truly happy. But it doesn’t seem to work – for many of us, life still seems hollow and meaningless. So focused are we on personal development and material possessions that we’ve overlooked the things that make life truly fulfilling and worthwhile.

So how do we figure out what’s really worth striving for? In this compelling follow-up to his bestselling book Stand Firm, Danish philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann shows us that the important things in life are those with intrinsic value, like goodness, freedom, truth and love. We should stop asking ‘what’s in it for me?’, and turn our attention outwards to our friends, families and communities. By putting others first and embracing these unconditional principles, or standpoints, he argues, we can find a more meaningful and sustainable way of living.

Table of Content

Foreword

Prologue: The Meaningful Life

1. The Good (Aristotle)

2. Dignity (Kant)

3. The Promise (Nietzsche)

4. The Self (Kierkegaard)

5. Truth (Arendt)

6. Responsibility (Løgstrup)

7. Love (Murdoch)

8. Forgiveness (Derrida)

9. Freedom (Camus)

10. Death (Montaigne)

Epilogue: Perspectives on the Meaning of Life

About the author

Svend Brinkmann is professor of general psychology and qualitative methods at Aalborg University.