Excellent analysis of western philosophy along with questions and insights into the current neoliberal culture and economy. To spoil the title question the second to last sentence reads: "It's a process of permanent revolution."

The honesty of Kant's dualism takes courage, because the impossibility of bringing reason and nature together is not a truth we really want to know.
pg 123

This book is a huge defense of Kantian philosophy in life, seeking to clarify the many misconceptions people have of Kant being "boring", "rigid", "inflexible" etc, reconciling Kant's middle way with a whole spectrum of diverse thinkers such as Thrasymachus, Voltaire, Rousseau, Leibniz, Hume, Hobbes, Hegel and even Nietzsche. Perhaps growing up is indeed like the art of tightrope walking. A bit off, and you plunge into an abyss of either cynicism or immaturity, neither which is desirable.

Excellent investigation into the joys of "growing up" drawing upon Enlightenment philosophy, really comes into it's own during the final section with some good advice. Very readable throughout.

Not to give away major spoilers or anything, but yes, the author is in favor of growing up. It's a third path between starry-eyed idealism and the bitter cynicism of adolescence. This book is in an annoying limbo for me. I think the author is making important points, and I want to run around to various friends and show them parts of the book and tell them to read it. But then again, a fair chunk of the book is devoted to explaining bits of Rousseau and Kant. And while this is Rousseau and Kant as "translated" by an intelligent modern author, they're still a pair of heavy-duty philosophers. There were parts of this book where I could only read for a short time, and then I had to go do something else and let the ideas sink in for a while. But even if you end up skimming those middle chapters, I think the book is worth the effort.

Didn't like the book at alle, it just doenst go anywhere. I was really looking forward to a good stong argument but all I got was some sort of girlcrush from the author for Rousseau