A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues: The Uses of Philosophy in Everyday Life
French right-wing "nouveau philosophe" Comte-Sponville, a  professor at Paris's Sorbonne, had an international success with  this not-so-small book, though it's unclear how many buyers have  made it all the way through. Dividing the book into 18  virtue-based chapters "Politeness," "Fidelity," "Prudence,"  "Temperance," "Courage," "Mercy," "Gratitude," and so  on Comte-Sponville quotes a multitude of philosophers from the  ancient Greeks through Spinoza, Hobbes and Nietzsche to modern  Frenchmen like Vladimir Jankelevitch. But doing so fails to make  what is essentially a quirky, self-centered monologue into an  all-ages dialogue: "Kant and Rousseau think gratitude a duty.  I'm not convinced. Moreover, I don't really believe in duties."  Such pronouncements presume a reputation and familiarity that  does not carry over to these shores. The humorless writing on  humor seems oddly pitched as well: "One mustn't exaggerate the  importance of humor, however. A bastard can have a sense of  humor, and a hero can lack one. But as we have seen, the same is  true of most virtues, and as an argument against humor it proves  nothing, except of course that humor itself proves nothing."  This is Comte-Sponville's first book rendered in English, and  despite the concise translation (by Catherine Temerson), it's  not hard to see why. (Aug. 30) Forecast: While Holt must have How Proust Can Change Your  Life-like ambitions for this title, Alain de Botton scored with  readers because they warmed to his loopy self-obsessions.  Unfortunately, fans of de Botton won't find much kinship with  self-labeled "atheist and neo-cynic" Comte-Sponville, despite  his considerable philosophical reputation, and sales, in Europe.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.