A profound, original, and accessible reserve that offers a new secular vision of how we may lead our lives. Which range from fundamental existential queries to the many pressing social problems of our period, This Life displays why our dedication to independence and democracy should lead us beyond both religious beliefs and capitalism.

In this groundbreaking publication, the philosopher Martin Hägglund challenges our received notions of faith and freedom. The beliefs we have to cultivate, he argues, isn’t a religious trust in concerning this Existence: Secular Beliefs and Spiritual Independence eternity but a secular faith devoted to our finite existence together. He shows that all spiritual queries of freedom are inseparable from economic and material conditions. What ultimately issues is how exactly we treat each other in this existence, and what we do with our time together.

Hägglund develops new existential and political concepts while transforming our understanding of religious life. His critique of religious beliefs takes us to the heart of what this means to mourn our family members, be committed, and value a sustainable world. His critique of capitalism demonstrates that we fail to maintain our democratic ideals because our lives rely on income labor. In clear and pathbreaking conditions, Hägglund clarifies why capitalism is inimical to our freedom, and just why we should rather pursue a book type of democratic socialism.

In developing his vision of the emancipated secular life, Hägglund engages with great philosophers from Aristotle to Hegel and Marx, literary writers from Dante to Proust and Knausgaard, political economists from Mill to Keynes and Hayek, and spiritual thinkers from Augustine to Kierkegaard and Martin Luther King, Jr. This Existence gives us brand-new usage of our past-for the sake of the different future.