How Illusions Can Change Your Life - with Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton talks to Stine Jensen about his latest book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, presented tonight, and about the power of the illusion in work, art and love. In English.

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Date and time Friday 16 January 2009 22:10 tot 23:00 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - kleine zaal

Is illusion the source of happiness? This question philosopher and columnist Stine Jensen put to Alain de Botton. In his latest book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, launched at Winternachten, he finds happiness in work. ‘Our work will at any rate have formed a perfect bubble in order to project our urge for perfection.’ In his best-sellers How Proust Can Change Your Life and The Consolations of Philosophy De Botton provided clues how to enjoy life more with the aid of writers like Nietzsche, Stendhal and Proust.

Alain de Botton

(Zürich, 1969) writes books and makes tv programmes exposing everyday problems with the aid of the ideas of classical writers and philosophers. His latest exploit is the foundation of The School of Life in London in August 2008. De Botton's idea behind it is to reorganize existing university education and to aim it at life (…) and give people a sense of direction and wisdom with the aid of culture.’ De Botton's international breakthrough came in 1997 with the best-seller How Proust Can Save Your Life, followed by Consolations of Philosophy (2000). In both books De Botton looks at feelings such as love, friendship, jealousy and desire from the perspective of thinkers like Seneca, Nietzsche, Stendhal and Proust. De Botton moved to London when he was twelve and studied philosophy and history. He is a columnist for several English newspapers, the Independent on Sunday among others. All his books have been translated in Dutch.
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Stine Jensen

(Denmark, 1972) is a Danish/Dutch philosopher, literary scholar and writer. Her initial work dealt with love and evil in person-to-animal and person-to-person relationships; now she turns her gaze inside with Go East, her quest for spirituality, and Mag ik je wat vragen over lust en liefde (Can I ask you something about lust and love), a workbook to increase happiness.Turkse Vlinders (Turkish Butterflies, 2005) explored her own experience with intercultural love affairs. Leugenaars (Liars, 2006) was a philosophical inquiry into Latin lovers, crooks and other shady characters. The cultural differences between East and West formed the leitmotif of her first novel, Dokter Jazz (Doctor Jazz, 2009). For television, she made a series about philosophy and Scandinavia. Her debut children's book, Lieve Stine, weet jij het? (Dear Stine, Do You Know?) won the 2015 Silveren Griffel award.
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