Pieces of an Examined Life: Essays and Stories

By Stephen Vicchio and Stephen J. Vicchio

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891521063
• ISBN13: 9781891521065
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Woodholme House Publishers
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Lifelong learning

Stephen Vicchio embraces the notion of lifelong learning both in his writings, teachings and way of life. If words ever had the power to make you stop for a moment only to realize that you are happy, those are the words captured on every page of this book. Read, reflect, and marvel at the wonders of life that our 80 hour work-week society so easily looses sight of.

Popular Professor Offers Philosophy for the Masses

According to the Greek philosopher Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Stephen Vicchio agrees.In Pieces of an Examined Life--his latest collection of essays and stories--Vicchio embraces this Socratic notion, examining the world about him with sparkling clarity and reverent wonder. But Vicchio, professor of philosophy at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, is no ivory tower theoretician. His essays are spun from contemporary issues and everyday events--the things we all think about and experience. Whether exploring relationships, nature, tragedy, the complexities of "God," or the simple pleasures of taking a walk, Vicchio is at his sharpest and most thought-provoking here. When asked about why Vicchio's writing strikes a nerve, Josephine Jacobsen, former poetry consultant for the Library of Congress, commented: "Stephen Vicchio has...a finely tuned sense of style, perceptiveness, wit, and intelligence."Vicchio is in his element when working with the essay, wherein he masterfully defuses perplexing subjects by infusing the text with a storyteller's gift for words and narrative. These fifty pieces in eight chapters weave through the human condition: finding the mystery in what seems ordinary, family and fatherhood, love and suffering, morality (from Dr. Kevorkian to Bill Clinton), and the compulsion to teach (inside the classroom and out)."He has changed the way I think," said Cpl. Scott Canter, Baltimore County Police Department, "not only in my police work, but also at home dealing with my kids."Stephen Vicchio has taught philosophy at the College of Notre Dame for twenty years, and served as the department's chairman. He also teaches in the Johns Hopkins University Robert Wood Johnson Fellows Program, the Johns Hopkins Police Executive Leadership Program, and at the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary's Seminary and University. Vicchio has authored fifteen books--essay collections, scholarly monographs, and two plays--most recent of which is the drama Ivan & Adolf: The Last Man in Hell. He is currently working on a three-volume scholarly examination of The Book of Job, a play about capital punishment, and a "best of" collection of his writing.