I admitted that I don’t read too many philosophy books, but human kindness It is more than a philosophy book. It is positive and uplifting, offering practical assurances of goodness in people in contrast to dry, humorless beliefs and theories.
In the preface, the author presents a happy thought. “Think about how people from different cultural and social backgrounds can learn from each other and enjoy each other’s company if they come together to tell stories of human kindness in their particular culture and society.” Within the main part of the book, she follows up on that thought.
This study of kindness comes in four sections. In the first “Vignettes” section, the theme of the breadth and variety of goodness gets readers thinking and very often agreeing with the author’s observations. One such observation is: good manners and being nice are not necessarily the same thing. The second section is short and points to “Doing Good Out of Evil,” which has examples of people who risked their own well-being to help others in difficult times.
The book continues with “Good People” to showcase various examples of good people by offering the detailed life stories of many people we already know and admire, including Socrates, Mozart, John Keats, Mother Teresa, Confucius, and Simone Weil. The final section of the book, titled Reflections, deals with the negative influence of dark backgrounds and behaviors, which the author finds boring; then the text continues with ‘the points of light’, in which more characters such as Carl Jasper and Schweitzer are shown as examples.
The author’s tone is factual and positive as she spreads her pearls of wisdom throughout the pages. She delivers her words in a serious yet encouraging style, not letting them turn into sermons.
human kindnesspublished by University of Wisconsin Press, comes in hardcover and 244 pages with ISBN-10: 0299226700 and ISBN-13: 978-0299226701
Yi-Fu Tuan, according to the back cover of the book, is the JK Wright and Vilas Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been honored with the Cullum Medal of the American Geographical Society, the Lauréat d’Honneur of the Geographical Union International, and the Charles Homer Haskins Professorship of the American Council of Learned Societies. The books of him in addition to human kindness They are: Returning to China, Cosmos and Home: A Cosmopolitan’s Point of View, Dear Colleague: Common and Uncommon Observations, Domination and Affection: The Making of Pets, Escapism, Geography and the Human Spirit, The Good Life, A Geography History of China, Landscapes of Fear, Morality, and Imagination: Paradoxes of Progress, the Weird and Wonderful Happening: Aesthetics, Nature, and Culture, Place, Art, and the Self, Segmented Worlds and the Self: A Study of Group Life and Individual Consciousness, and Who I am? : An autobiography of emotion, mind and spirit. She is also the co-author of World Views: Maps and Art September 11, 1999-January 2, 2000 with Robert Bruce Silberman and Landscape Nature and the Body Politic: From Britain’s Renaissance to America’s New World with Kenneth Olwig.
Sometimes it helps to focus on the decency of others to encourage us to be better people. Offering hope, encouragement, and salvation, this inspiring book is a step in that direction. I wholeheartedly recommend it.