The Pursuit of Success

This book explores the question of what it means to live a successful life, a neglected topic within philosophy despite its centrality to so many of our life choices. Drawing from the Stoics and other ancient moral thinkers, Christine Vitrano addresses our misguided assumptions about success, which have led us to relentlessly pursue external goods and achievements at the expense of our own happiness. Vitrano defends the view that the key to living successfully is to find happiness, arguing that everything else we typically associate with success is important only insofar as it contributes to happiness. She criticizes contemporary philosophers who emphasize the importance of activities that are objectively valuable or meaningful and proposes that just as it is a mistake to associate success with external goods like wealth and material possessions, it is also a mistake to place restrictions on how one finds happiness in life.