Philosopher KIERAN SETIYA says that instead of pursuing happiness, our goal in life should be to live as well as we can even when faced with hardship and uncertainty. Most of us have grappled with loss, loneliness, failure, injustice and the absurdities of living. Setiya has lived with chronic pain for most of his adult life, a condition that he says has made him a more compassionate person.

His new book, Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way, draws on the writing of great thinkers like Plato, Socrates, Kant, Woolf, Didion, Dickinson and others. Setiya says philosophy, at its root, is about the question “How to Live?”