The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life

　　《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）

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world.

"Deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive."--The Washington Post

Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy--who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and find the view . . . unsatisfying. They realize: This wasn't my mountain after all. There's another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain.

And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. They embrace a life of interdependence, not independence. They surrender to a life of commitment.

In The Second Mountain, David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: 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. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty 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, that tells us to be true to ourselves, at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. We have taken individualism to the extreme--and in the process we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments. In The Second Mountain, Brooks shows what can happen when we put commitment-making at the center of our lives.

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.