A01=Sebastian Purcell
Author_Sebastian Purcell
aztec
Category=QD
codex
collectivity
community
elders
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
ethics
happiness
mexico
morality
philosophy
translation
wisdom
Product details
- ISBN 9781324020561
- Weight: 380g
- Dimensions: 147 x 218mm
- Publication Date: 05 Aug 2025
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The Aztecs were a philosophical people who held that the top goal in human life is not happiness but the pursuit of what they called ‘neltiliztli’: a life in truth. Our world, they held, is a “slippery” one—a place where it is easy to make mistakes and be unwell. A true life avoids slipping by pursuing a communitarian solution, beginning with the formation of relationships and growing deep roots and later moving inward to still the mind. This outside-in approach is the outward path.
In The Outward Path, Sebastian Purcell carves out a place for Aztec philosophy in popular culture, alongside the ancient Greeks, the Stoics and the Buddhists. He also presents “spiritual exercises” in their rich historical context and makes rootedness an achievable, practical goal for modern readers.
Sebastian Purcell is an award-winning associate professor of philosophy at SUNY-Cortland in New York, where he researches ethics, Aztec philosophy, and mathematical logic. He resides in Binghamton, New York.
