Alain de Botton | |
|---|---|
 De Botton in 2011 | |
| Born | (1969-12-20)20 December 1969 (age 56) Zürich, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Writer, speaker |
| Nationality |
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| Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA) King's College London (MPhil) Harvard University |
| Period | 1993–present |
| Website | |
| alaindebotton | |
Alain de BottonFRSL (/dəˈbɒtən/; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born Britishauthor andpublic speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He publishedEssays in Love (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers includeHow Proust Can Change Your Life (1997),Status Anxiety (2004), andThe Architecture of Happiness (2006).
He co-foundedThe School of Life in 2008 and Living Architecture in 2009.[1][2] He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011.[3] In 2015, he was awarded "The Fellowship of Schopenhauer", an annual writers' award from theMelbourne Writers Festival, for that work.
De Botton was born inZürich, the son of Jacqueline (née Burgauer) andGilbert de Botton. Gilbert was born inAlexandria, Egypt, but went to live and work in Switzerland, where he co-founded an investment firm,Global Asset Management; his family was estimated to have been worth £234 million in 1999.[4]
Alain de Botton's Swiss-born mother wasAshkenazi, and his father was from aSephardic Jewish family from the town of Boton[5] inCastile and León. De Botton's ancestors includeAbraham de Boton.[6] De Botton's paternal grandmother wasYolande Harmer, a Jewish-Egyptian journalist who spied forIsrael and died inJerusalem.[7]
He has one sister,Miel, and they received a secular upbringing.[8] Alain spent the first twelve years of his life in Switzerland where he was brought up speaking French and German.
De Botton attended theDragon School where English became his primary language. He was later sent to board and study atHarrow School, a public school in England. He has often described his childhood as that of a shy child living in boarding schools.
De Botton read history atUniversity of Cambridge, where he was a member ofGonville and Caius College, graduating with adouble starred first.[9] He then completed anMPhil inPhilosophy atKing’s College London (1991-92), before studying for aPhD inFrench philosophy atHarvard University.[10][11] However, he gave up his research to write books for the general public.[9]
In his first novel,Essays in Love (titledOn Love in the U.S.), published in 1993, de Botton deals with the process of falling in and out of love. In 2010,Essays in Love was adapted to film by director Julian Kemp for the romantic comedyMy Last Five Girlfriends.[12] De Botton wrote a sequel toEssays in Love, published in 2016, titledThe Course of Love.
In 1997 he published his first non-fiction book,How Proust Can Change Your Life, based on the life and works ofMarcel Proust.[13] It was a bestseller in both the UK and US.[14]
This was followed byThe Consolations of Philosophy in 2000. The title of the book is a reference toBoethius'sConsolation of Philosophy, in which philosophy appears as anallegorical figure to Boethius to console him in the period leading up to his impending execution. InThe Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such asEpicurus,Montaigne,Nietzsche,Schopenhauer,Seneca andSocrates can be applied to modern everyday woes. The book has been both praised and criticised for its therapeutic approach to philosophy.
In 2004, he publishedStatus Anxiety.
InThe Architecture of Happiness[15] (2006), he discusses the nature of beauty in architecture and how it is related to the well-being and general contentment of the individual and society. He describes how architecture affects people every day, though people rarely pay particular attention to it. A good portion of the book discusses how human personality traits are reflected in architecture. He defendsModernist architecture, and chastises thepseudo-vernacular architecture of housing, especially in the UK. "The best modern architecture," he argues, "doesn't hold a mirror up to nature, though it may borrow a pleasing shape or expressive line from nature's copybook. It gives voice to aspirations and suggests possibilities. The question isn't whether you'd actually like to live in aLe Corbusier home, but whether you'd like to be the kind of person who'd like to live in one."[citation needed]
InThe Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009),[16] de Botton produced a survey of ten different jobs, including accountancy, rocket science and biscuit manufacture. The book, a piece of narrative non-fiction, includes two hundred original images and aims to unlock the beauty, interest and occasional horror of the modern world of work. After a negative review of the book byNew York Times criticCaleb Crain, de Botton posted a scathingad hominem attack against Crain.[17][18] He later apologized for his remarks.[19]
In August 2009, de Botton applied to a competition advertised among British literary agents by the airport management companyBAA for the post of "writer-in-residence" atHeathrow Airport. The post involved being seated at a desk in Terminal 5, and writing about the comings and goings of passengers over a week. De Botton was appointed to the position. The result was the book,A Week at the Airport, published by Profile Books in September 2009. The book features photographs by the documentary photographer Richard Baker, with whom de Botton also worked onThe Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.[20]
In January 2012, de Botton publishedReligion for Atheists, about the benefits of religions for those who do not believe in them. De Botton put it: "It's clear to me that religions are in the end too complex, interesting and on occasion wise to be abandoned simply to those who believe in them".[21] In April 2012, he publishedHow to Think More about Sex, one in a series of six books on topics of emotional life published by his enterprise,The School of Life.[clarification needed]
In October 2013, he publishedArt as Therapy, co-written with the Australian-Scottish art historian, John Armstrong.Art as Therapy argues that certain great works of art "offer clues on managing the tensions and confusions of everyday life".[22]
In February 2014, de Botton published his fourteenth book, a title calledThe News: A User's Manual, a study of the effects of the news on modern mentality, viewed through the prism of 25 news stories, culled from a variety of sources, which de Botton analyses in detail. The book delved with more rigour into de Botton's analyses of the modern media that appeared inStatus Anxiety.
De Botton used to write articles for several English newspapers and from 1998 to 2000 wrote a regular column forThe Independent on Sunday.
De Botton travels extensively to lecture.[23] He has given lectures atTED conferences.[24] In July 2011, he spoke inEdinburgh about "Atheism 2.0", an idea ofatheism that also incorporates our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence.[25] In July 2009, he spoke atOxford University about the philosophy of failure and success, and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments.[26]
In 2011 he presented a series of talks for theBBC Radio 4 seriesA Point of View.[27]
He has his own production company, Seneca Productions, which makes television documentaries based upon his works.[23]
De Botton has written in a variety of formats to mixed response. Positive reviews of his books attest that he has made literature, philosophy and art more accessible to a wider audience.[28][29][30][31][32]
Negative reviews allege that de Botton tends to state the obvious[33][34] and have characterized some of his books as reducing complex philosophy to agreeable, digestible self-help guides.[35][36][37][38]
In 2008, Alain de Botton was one of a team of writers and educators who founded The School of Life. Based in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Seoul, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, São Paulo, Berlin and Melbourne, The School of Life offers an emotional education focusing in particular on the issues of Work and Relationships. In an interview with Metkere.com de Botton said:
The idea is to challenge traditional universities and reorganise knowledge, directing it towards life, and away from knowledge for its own sake. In a modest way, it’s an institution that is trying to give people what universities should I think always give them: a sense of direction and wisdom for their lives with the help of culture.[39]
In May 2009, de Botton launched a project called "Living Architecture,"[40] which builds holiday rental houses in the UK using leading contemporary architects. These includePeter Zumthor,MVRDV, JVA, NORD and Michael and Patti Hopkins. The most recent house to be announced is a collaboration between the Turner-prize winning artistGrayson Perry, and the architecture firmFAT. The houses are rented out to the general public. De Botton, the creative director and chairman of Living Architecture, aims to improve the appreciation of good contemporary architecture—a task that serves as a practical continuation of his theoretical work on architecture in his bookThe Architecture of Happiness. In October 2009, he was appointed an honorary fellow of theRoyal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in recognition of his services to architecture.[41]
In 2014, de Botton was invited by three museums—theRijksmuseum in Amsterdam, theNational Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and theArt Gallery of Ontario in Toronto—to contribute content to special exhibitions based on his work,Art as Therapy. De Botton and his colleague John Armstrong inserted captions, arranged on largePost-it-style labels designed by the Dutch graphic artist,Irma Boom, bearing slogans and commentary on exhibits throughout the Rijksmuseum.[42]
De Botton has described his relationship with his father as difficult, stating: "When I sold my first bestseller (and a million dollars was peanuts for my father) he was not impressed and wondered what I was going to do with myself."[43] When his father died, his family was left a largetrust fund,[44] although de Botton says his income is derived solely from his own activities (book sales, speaking engagements, business consulting, The School of Life).[45][46][47] Alain's stepmother,Janet Wolfson de Botton, is a prominent patron of the arts and competition bridge player.[48] He married his wife, Charlotte, in 2003 and they have two sons.[49]
In August 2014, de Botton was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter toThe Guardian opposingScottish independence in the run-up to September'sreferendum on that issue.[50]
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Founded in London in 2008 by Swiss-born philosopher Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton, the Swiss-born essayist who lives in London, founded a nonprofit group called Living Architecture in 2009
Through his witty and literate books, and his new School of Life, Alain de Botton helps others find fulfillment in the everyday
De Botton's idea of bringing philosophy to the masses and presenting it in an unthreatening manner (and showing how it might be useful in anyone's life), is admirable; the way he has gone about it is less so.
All de Botton's books, fiction and non-fiction, deal with how thought and specifically philosophy might help us deal better with the challenges of quotidian life, returning philosophy to its simple, sound origins.
...a pop philosopher who's forged a lucrative career stating the bleeding obvious in a series of poncey, lighter-than-air books aimed at smug Sunday supplement pseuds looking for something clever-looking to read on the plane
De Botton's new book consists of obvious, hopeless or contradictory advice culled from great thinkers on how to overcome certain problems of existence.
Like de Botton's previous books, this one contains its quota of piffle dressed up in pompous language.
...little of the original thinking that might be expected from an outsider... TheArchitecture of Happiness would be an innocuous castoff if not for its proselytizing ambitions
...this book examining "work" sounds often as if it has been written by someone who never had a job that was not voluntary, or at least pleasant.[dead link]
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