Transcendence for Beginners
Life Writing and Philosophy
Published on 7. April 2026
216 pages
979-8-89623-015-1 (ISBN)
Description
A lyrical work of philosophy that draws from the work of Spinoza, George Eliot, biographers, memoirists, and more to examine how wisdom and goodness are transmitted by individual human lives.
Transcendence for Beginners is an innovative book about philosophy and life writing, exploring how each practice might complement the other and so contribute to a greater understanding of human existence. Reflecting on writers and thinkers from Europe and India-such as Benedict Spinoza and Søren Kierkegaard, Ramana Maharshi and Marcel Proust-Clare Carlisle examines how deep, genuine wisdom and goodness are transmitted by individual lives. She considers her own intertwined pursuits as a philosopher and a biographer, as well as her roles as a mother and a daughter. Animated by the spirit of inquiry and the desire to share its rewards, Transcendence for Beginners is a generous, enlivening work by one of today's most original thinkers.
Transcendence for Beginners is an innovative book about philosophy and life writing, exploring how each practice might complement the other and so contribute to a greater understanding of human existence. Reflecting on writers and thinkers from Europe and India-such as Benedict Spinoza and Søren Kierkegaard, Ramana Maharshi and Marcel Proust-Clare Carlisle examines how deep, genuine wisdom and goodness are transmitted by individual lives. She considers her own intertwined pursuits as a philosopher and a biographer, as well as her roles as a mother and a daughter. Animated by the spirit of inquiry and the desire to share its rewards, Transcendence for Beginners is a generous, enlivening work by one of today's most original thinkers.
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approx. 04/2026
New York Review of Books
€18.50
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Person
Clare Carlisle is the author of eight books on philosophy and philosophers, including Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Soren Kierkegaard and The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life, which won the 2024 PEN/Jacque-line Bograd Weld Award for Biography. Carlisle grew up in Manchester, England; studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge; and now lives in East London. She is a professor of philosophy at King's College London.
