Publisher's Synopsis
Our society is in a state of crisis. Millennials and Generation Z find themselves lost in a world torn apart by extreme individualism, loneliness, culture wars, mob mentalities, and an epidemic of narcissism fuelled by our addiction to information technologies. In Pursuit of the Beautiful Soul by Justine Kolata offers a revolutionary solution to overcoming the soullessness of modern life. The book explores the untold relationship between the eighteenth-century philosophy of the Beautiful Soul and the salon culture in which it was enacted. This lost humanistic artform of self-cultivation inspires the pursuit of beauty, goodness, and truth in the act of creating a beautiful existence. Kolata weaves together the essential features of this practical philosophy with an historical exploration of the German-Jewish salonnieres' ground-breaking efforts to cultivate beautiful souls through the arts and conversation. She recounts vivid anecdotes from her own salons which revitalise this vibrant tradition. In Pursuit of the Beautiful Soul explores how this philosophy's prescient insights into the human condition provide a framework for today's disenchanted generations to restore the ideals intrinsic to individual happiness and social flourishing.
