As we reach midlife, we find ourselves confronted with the lives we will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with the allure of nostalgia for lost youth. Our days become a grind of tasks to be pursued and then completed; life can feel hollow even when we are getting things done.

In this Career Lunch and Learn webinar, Kieran Setiya, professor of philosophy at MIT, will explain the social science behind the idea of a midlife crisis and share strategies for adapting to adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive.

You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, what it would mean to ‘live in the present,’ and when you should be glad you made a mistake.

About Kieran Setiya

Kieran Setiya is a professor of philosophy at MIT, where he works on ethics and on related questions about human agency and human knowledge. He is the author of Reasons without Rationalism (Princeton University Press, 2007) and Knowing Right From Wrong (Oxford University Press, 2012), and most recently, of a self-help book, Midlife: A Philosophical Guide (Princeton University Press, 2017). He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife and son...[read more]

About Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

Ranging from Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and John Stuart Mill to Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as drawing on Setiya’s own experience, Midlife combines imaginative ideas, surprising insights, and practical advice. Writing with wisdom and wit, Setiya makes a wry but passionate case for philosophy as a guide to life...[read more]