It鈥檚 good to be well-rounded. When you do a lot of different things, when you work on expanding your horizons, when you dive into the fascinating diversity of the world around you, your life will be a better one. Yet while many of us aspire to become well-rounded, this kind of life has rarely shown up in philosophical discussions of well-being. In The Well-Rounded Life, Amy Berg argues that well-rounded lives are often better, richer lives鈥攎ore socially connected, happier, and more resilient.
Building on philosophical work on well-being and drawing from social science, history, art, and pop culture, The Well-Rounded Life shows why we should strive to be well-rounded鈥攁nd how we can do it. In making her case, Berg shows why we don鈥檛 need to be afraid of being mediocre at things, even things we care deeply about; why it can be a bad idea to try to lead a life that will make a great story; and how we should navigate tradeoffs between the well-rounded life and other good things.
It may not be the only good life out there, but The Well-Rounded Life shows why embracing a variety of pursuits is one of the best ways to live.
Amy Berg is associate professor of philosophy at Rice University.
“Living a one-dimensional life might make life easier, but it doesn’t make it better. Amy Berg’s refreshing defense of the well-rounded life gives us permission to make our lives as diverse as the world is, even if that means a life with less perfection, meaning, or moral value. The Well-Rounded Life is a must-read for the overachiever, the underachiever, and anyone looking for a new perspective on what makes life go well.”—Lorraine Besser, author of The Art of the Interesting: What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It
“Delightful, accessible, and original, this book is full of insights that stem from a deep appreciation of the challenges we all confront in trying to live well. It’s one of the very few books that I have actually found helpful in thinking about how to live my own life.”—Valerie Tiberius, author of Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots
“Amy Berg has written a rare work of philosophy. With great verve and wisdom, she pushes back against today’s mania for perfection, hyperspecialization, and being ‘the best’ in defense of a well-rounded life. The result is philosophically sophisticated yet accessible, and I highly recommend it.”—Daniel M. Haybron, author of Happiness: A Very Short Introduction
“Consistently funny, engrossing, relatable, and philosophically deep, The Well-Rounded Life never breaks character.”—Gwen Bradford, University of Toronto
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