Ignorance and Bliss

"Insurance companies, along with many other institutions, are in the business of calculating how long you are likely to live. But if a genie offered to tell you the exact year and month and day that you were going to die, you would almost certainly shrink back and refuse the offer. In this tour de force, Mark Lilla explores the deep sources of this refusal. An exuberant, inexhaustible storyteller, Lilla finds the hidden, self-protective will to ignorance at the center of our most cherished religious myths, philosophical systems, and literary masterpieces." —Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve and The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve

"Ignorance is bliss, a poet once said, and Mark Lilla offers us a learned, humane and astringent guide to our incorrigible attachment to ignorance and our wavering commitment to truth. At a time when our politics is debauched with lies and fake news, Lilla asks a question which challenges our alibis: what if the root of the problem lies not with our leaders, but with us?" —Michael Ignatieff, professor at Central European University and author of On Consolation

"Ever since Aristotle, philosophers have assumed that human beings want to know the truth about the world and themselves. What if this is an illusion? Gleaning insights from ancient myths and modern novels, Saint Augustine, Sigmund Freud, and a rich variety of other thinkers and writers, Mark Lilla argues compellingly that a will to ignorance is as strong in human beings as any interest in knowledge. Writing with admirable clarity and subtle charm, Lilla gives us a highly original study of what our desire not to know means for our lives." —John Gray, author of The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism

"In these murky days when we all seem to be at sea, Mark Lilla's elegant and perceptive handbook serves both as a compass and a hopeful sail." —Alberto Manguel, author of Maimonides and A History of Reading