This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free

If this life is all there is, what should we do with it? Join Swedish philosopher Martin Hagglund on an original inquiry into the deepest questions of existence, beginning with a radical declaration: ‘What I do and what I love can matter to me only because I understand myself as mortal.’

Through revelatory engagements with some of history’s greatest philosophers, including Aristotle, St Augustine, Nietzsche, Hegel and Marx, Hagglund attacks our two great deceivers, religion and capitalism. Only by stripping away their subtle illusions can we discover the true value of our earthly freedom.

Existence is revealed as a collective project: everything is at stake in what we do together, and no victory can survive us. ‘The light of bliss - even when it floods your life - is always attended by the shadow of loss.’ By illuminating this truth, This Life forges an existential philosophy fit for a darkening century.