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The School of Life

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see School of Life (disambiguation).

The School of Life
Three 13 Solutions, Campus London LLP, ELOE Limited, STOA Limited.[1]
Founded2008; 16 years ago (2008)
FounderAlain de Botton
Headquarters
London, England
Websitewww.theschooloflife.com Edit this at Wikidata

The School of Life is a British multinational[2] social media company founded in 2008 by British author and public speaker Alain de Botton.[3][4] The company is headquartered in London.[5] It publishes various materials dealing with the topics of anxiety management,[6] emotional intelligence, relationships, work, creativity, and spirituality.

History

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The School of Life was founded in 2008[4] by a group of academics, including author Alain de Botton. The curator, Sophie Howarth, is assisted by psychotherapists, artists, and educators.[7]

Publishing

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As of 2016, The School of Life owns a publishing press named "The School of Life Press."[8]

Books

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  • Great Thinkers (2016)
  • Relationships (2017)
  • How to Overcome Your Childhood (2018)
  • Anxiety (2019)
  • Big Ideas for Curious Minds (2019)
  • What They Forgot to Teach You at School (2020)
  • The Good Enough Parent (2021)
  • On Self Hatred (2022)
  • How Modern Media Destroys Our Minds (2022)
  • Big Ideas From Literature (2024)[9]

Criticism

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The company has been criticized for its representations of philosophers and philosophical arguments. The Los Angeles Review of Books criticized a series of books by the School of Life as being a "vortex of jargon pitched somewhere between the banal banter of daytime talk shows and the schedule for a nightmarish New Age retreat."[10] Professor Hans-Georg Moeller of the University of Macau has criticized the School's video on Lao Tzu, stating that it used fabricated quotes and misrepresented the Tao Te Ching.[11]

Jeffrey Howard praises the company for its critiques of romanticism and efforts to foster emotional intelligence using philosophy, and argues that The School of Life offers "self-help for those who might need a bit more engagement with the intellect to consider the complete living that comes with also employing our faculties that operate from the neck down."[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Campus London LLP – Overview (free company information from Companies House)".
  2. ^ "A Brief History of the School of Life". Happiness.com. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  3. ^ "The School of Life: An Interview With Alain de Botton". HuffPost. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  4. ^ a b Wyndham, Susan (29 June 2016). "Alain de Botton and his School of Life come to Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  5. ^ "Londoner's Diary: Alain De Botton and his school exit Europe". London Evening Standard. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  6. ^ Dynes, Robin (28 April 2017). "Preparing for Anxiety Management Training". Anxiety Management. pp. 1–18. doi:10.4324/9781315172941. ISBN 9781315172941.
  7. ^ "Faculty". The School of Life. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ "The School of Life | Your Path to Mental Wellbeing". The School of Life. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  9. ^ Dillon, Melanie (28 April 2024). "Big Ideas From Literature by The School of Life". School Reading List. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  10. ^ Levy, Lisa (11 May 2013). "How To Think More (But Not Better): Alain de Botton's School of Life". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  11. ^ WORSE Philosophy Videos! School of Life on Eastern Philosophy - Lao Tzu, 17 March 2021, archived from the original on 20 December 2021, retrieved 15 June 2021
  12. ^ Howard, Jeffrey (2019). "'The School of Life' Preaches Pessimism Over Romanticism." Erraticus. Retrieved March 18, 2023. [1]
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