Kieran Setiya

Kieran Setiya is a British-born philosopher, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who works on ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of action. Raised in Hull, he studied at Cambridge and Princeton. His academic books include Reasons without Rationalism (2007) and Knowing Right from Wrong (2012). Midlife (2017) applies philosophy to the midlife crisis, which he had experienced himself: the sense of missed chances and of a life spent on projects that finish only to be replaced. Life Is Hard (2022) turns to illness, loneliness, grief and failure.

Key ideas

• Telic activities aim at an end point and are used up once completed; atelic activities, such as walking or spending time with friends, are not.
• A life built only on telic projects can feel empty, and valuing atelic activities eases the midlife sense of futility.
• Missing out on other lives is a sign of how many good things there are, not a sign of a failed life.
• We can rationally prefer the life we have, even with its mistakes, because of the particular goods it has come to contain.

Major works

• Midlife: A Philosophical Guide (2017)
• Reasons without Rationalism (2007)
• Knowing Right from Wrong (2012)
• Life Is Hard (2022)

In the Book corner

• Midlife: A Philosophical Guide 2017 · Beginner
  A short, practical book that applies philosophy to the midlife crisis: the sense, often arriving in one's forties, that life has become…

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