The Intellectual Life
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Intellectual Life
| Full title | The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods |
|---|---|
| Author | A. G. Sertillanges |
| Published | 1921 |
| Pages | 182 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | A Dominican priest’s 1921 manual for the intellectual vocation, written for the person who thinks seriously without a university appointment — a job, perhaps two free hours a day — and treating that constraint as workable rather than fatal. |
Where I heard about it
- Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List (March 2026), in the Pursuing the Good Life: Ethics and Personal Growth section among Cicero, Aurelius and Frankl — the practical entry, about the daily discipline that makes the rest of a list like this survivable. It is marked with a ☑️ on the list, which gives no legend for the mark. The full list is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.
About this edition
Published in French in 1921 as La vie intellectuelle: son esprit, ses conditions, ses méthodes. The counsel is concrete — guard the hours ruthlessly, keep the body and the company in order because they determine what the mind can do, read few books slowly and take notes you will actually use, stay with one problem long enough to be changed by it, and understand the work as a service owed rather than a performance given.
Connections
- Reading — the practice the book is mostly about.
- Learning — its subject in general form.
- Christianity — the Dominican vocation from which it is written.
- The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.