The Second Mountain

　　《品格》、《社會性動物》大衛‧布魯克斯 David Brooks迄今最貼近生活的作品──幸福的風景，看起來應該是什麼樣子？登上個人幸福的山頂，可能並不是旅途的終點，還有第二座山，上頭有著更值得你追訪的景色。

　　世界告訴我們幸福來自於追尋與實現最極致、最傑出的自我，於是，我們在生活裡奮鬥，努力往上攀爬，以成績、收入、作品、成就證明自己存在的熠燿光芒。相信著當我們抵達了山頂，會看到人生裡最美好的光景。然而，倘若當自己已付出了所有力氣做到最好，將自我燃燒至最炙烈閃耀，有些時候，無關乎他人肯定與否，卻在心底仍隱隱感受到一絲悵然，覺得眼前的風景並不如想像的心滿意足，這是為什麼呢？

　　布魯克斯說，這是因為關於幸福，還有另一座山。與第一座教導我們練習獨立、尋找自我的山不同，第二座山，是關於承諾與倚賴。

　　在我們的生命歷程裡會作出四個重要的承諾：對伴侶與家庭、對工作及志業、對一套生命信念與信仰，以及對群體與社會。幸福，取決於我們如何選擇並把自我投身在這四者之中，融合為自己生命的意義。翻越了自我，把生命交付給自己之外的其他，依靠著這四個人生許諾，為之所投注的努力與付出，將帶我們爬上幸福的第二座山，看見充實、滿足與快樂。

　　以真實的人生故事──從文學家杜斯妥也夫斯基Dostoyevsky、大屠殺生還者埃蒂•伊勒桑Etty Hillesum、非洲教育創業家佛瑞德•史瓦尼克爾Fred Swaniker等──布魯克斯生動地描繪出他們如何投身於自己的選擇，過著充實喜悅的生活，也將他們的生命濃縮為容易理解、參考的智慧，指引我們如何選擇伴侶、抉擇職志、實踐生活的信念，並將這些承諾彼此結合成為自己人生最重要的生命目的。

　　繼《社會性動物》讓我們認識人類的快樂成功來自與他人、社會的關係，《品格》回溯了人類道德發展的歷史，記錄了我們如何平衡想要征服世界，以及以愛為先的兩個自我。《Second Mountain》兼具人生哲理的激勵啟發，以及對當代社會敏銳的觀察評論，這本最貼近個人與生活的作品，帶我們看見若將承諾當作生命的核心，為了不只是自己而踏上登頂路途，這座幸福的山頂會是什麼景色。（文/博客來編譯）

　　A thought-provoking exploration of the four major commitments in life that fundamentally shape our identities--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Road to Character.

　　Most of us, over the course of our lives, will make four big commitments: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. Joy comes when we fuse them into one coherent whole, with each of these commitments fortifying and strengthening the others. In The Committed Life, David Brooks looks at people--from Dostoyevsky to Holocaust survivor Etty Hillesum to African educational entrepreneur Fred Swaniker--who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity of dependence. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose.

　　In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives. But it’s also a provocative social commentary. We live in a society, Brooks argues, that celebrates freedom and choice, that tells us to be true to ourselves, to march to the beat of our own drummer at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, and binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. We have taken individualism to the extreme degree--and, in the process, we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments.

　　The Social Animal gave us a tale of human nature. The Road to Character traced the history of a great moral tradition--a riveting examination of morality in our time, but with The Committed Life, Brooks turns his mind to what happens when we put commitment-making at the center of life, producing one of Brooks’ most personal and revolutionary books yet.

　　Review

　　Praise for David Brooks’s The Road to Character

　　“A hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story.”—The New York Times Book Review

　　“This profound and eloquent book is written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance.”—Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree and The Noonday Demon

　　“The voice of the book is calm, fair and humane. The highlight of the material is the quality of the author’s moral and spiritual judgments.”—The Washington Post

　　“A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.”—The Guardian (U.K.)

　　The Social Animal
 
　　“Provocative . . . seeks to do nothing less than revolutionize our notions about how we function and conduct our lives.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
　　“[A] fascinating study of the unconscious mind and its impact on our lives.”—The Economist
 
　　“Compulsively readable . . . Brooks’s considerable achievement comes in his ability to elevate the unseen aspects of private experience into a vigorous and challenging conversation about what we all share.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
　　“Brooks surveys a stunning amount of research and cleverly connects it to everyday experience. . . . As in [Bobos in Paradise], he shows genius in sketching archetypes and coining phrases.”—The Wall Street Journal

作者簡介

　　David Brooks is one of the nation’s leading writers and commentators. He is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and appears regularly on PBS NewsHour and Meet the Press. He is the bestselling author of The Road to Character; The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement; Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There; and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (and Always Have) in the Future Tense.