The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking

In The Life of the Mind, Georgetown University’s James V. Schall takes up the task of reminding us that, as human beings, we naturally take a special delight and pleasure in simply knowing. Because we have not only bodies but also minds, we are built to know what is.

In this volume, Schall, author of On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs, among many other volumes of philosophical and political reflection, discusses the various ways of approaching the delight of thinking and the way that this...