Vital Nourishment: Departing from Happiness

An intellectual history of the concept of life and body politics in Chinese philosophy

The philosophical tradition in the West has always subjected life to conceptual divisions and questions about meaning. Although this process has given rise to a rich history of inquiry, it proceeds too fast, contends François Jullien. In its anxiety about meaning, Western thinkers since Plato have forgotten simply to experience life.

In Vital Nourishment, Jullien slows down and begins to think about life fr...