An engrossing, nuanced reflection on what it means to be human.
A psychologist explores the intersection of faith and material life in this nonfiction philosophical rumination.
“To overcome the challenges of past, present, and future,” writes Tapu in this book’s opening lines, “we need new stories, new guides, new ways.” While careful not to judge the spiritual beliefs of readers (“Your beliefs are important”), the volume urges them to consider the author’s version of a “new faith” that embraces diversity of thought beyond mere tolerance, arguing that “the love of the different will make the world reborn.” Central to the book’s framework is striking a middle ground between spiritual- and material-based belief systems, as it takes a moderate position that condemns fanaticism. For religious readers, for instance, the volume cautions that “a lot of faith can mean a lot of evil” while suggesting to skeptics that “little faith can mean little good. Although metaphysical reflections on the nature and meaning of life are the work’s bread and butter, it occasionally includes personal vignettes on topics such as grief, which is explored through the death of the author’s mother. A final chapter on practicing a “lifestyle for eternity” offers practical advice on ways to obtain “mind wholeness” in the chaos of modernity. A physician and professor of psychology at Romania’s University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest, Tapu is the author of multiple peer-reviewed textbooks. Occasional references to contemporary science notwithstanding, this volume eschews a research-based scholarly approach for a more esoteric pondering of the fundamental questions of human life (“How can we improve ourselves as humans?”; “Is it worth it to be human?”; “How does life last when it is so hard to entertain and death so easy to occur?”). At just 80 pages, the book will engage readers with an accessible, jargon-free writing style. It also strikes a fine balance between both respecting and challenging the core beliefs of readers, from atheists to the religiously devout, encouraging the entire spectrum to “believe in doubt” because “the strongest convictions are the most vulnerable.”
An engrossing, nuanced reflection on what it means to be human.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 61
Publisher: Lulu Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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