The School of Life

Social media company about self help

For other uses, see School of Life (disambiguation).

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The School of Life

Traded as

| Three 13 Solutions, Campus London LLP, ELOE Limited, STOA Limited.[1]
Founded| 2008; 17 years ago (2008)
Founder| Alain de Botton
Headquarters|

London, England

Website| www.theschooloflife.com

The School of Life is a British multinational[2] social media company founded in 2008 by British author and public speaker Alain de Botton.[3][4] The company is headquartered in London.[5] It publishes various materials dealing with the topics of anxiety management,[6] emotional intelligence, relationships, work, creativity, and spirituality.

## History

[edit]

The School of Life was founded in 2008[4] by a group of academics, including author Alain de Botton and curator, Sophie Howarth, along with a group of psychotherapists, artists, and educators.[7]

## Publishing

[edit]

As of 2016, The School of Life owns a publishing press named "The School of Life Press."[8]

### Books

[edit]

* Great Thinkers (2016)
* Relationships (2017)
* How to Overcome Your Childhood (2018)
* Anxiety (2019)
* Big Ideas for Curious Minds (2019)
* What They Forgot to Teach You at School (2020)
* The Good Enough Parent (2021)
* On Self Hatred (2022)
* How Modern Media Destroys Our Minds (2022)
* Big Ideas From Literature (2024)[9]

## Criticism

[edit]

The company has been criticized for its representations of philosophers and philosophical arguments. The Los Angeles Review of Books criticized a series of books by the School of Life as being a "vortex of jargon pitched somewhere between the banal banter of daytime talk shows and the schedule for a nightmarish New Age retreat."[10] Professor Hans-Georg Moeller of the University of Macau has criticized the School's video on Lao Tzu, stating that it used fabricated quotes and misrepresented the Tao Te Ching.[11]

Jeffrey Howard praises the company for its critiques of romanticism and efforts to foster emotional intelligence using philosophy, and argues that The School of Life offers "self-help for those who might need a bit more engagement with the intellect to consider the complete living that comes with also employing our faculties that operate from the neck down."[12]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Campus London LLP – Overview (free company information from Companies House)".
2. ^ "A Brief History of the School of Life". Happiness.com. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
3. ^ "The School of Life: An Interview With Alain de Botton". HuffPost. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
4. ^ a b Wyndham, Susan (29 June 2016). "Alain de Botton and his School of Life come to Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
5. ^ "Londoner's Diary: Alain De Botton and his school exit Europe". London Evening Standard. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
6. ^ Dynes, Robin (28 April 2017). "Preparing for Anxiety Management Training". Anxiety Management. pp. 1–18\. doi:10.4324/9781315172941. ISBN 9781315172941.
7. ^ "Faculty". The School of Life. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
8. ^ "The School of Life | Your Path to Mental Wellbeing". The School of Life. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
9. ^ Dillon, Melanie (28 April 2024). "Big Ideas From Literature by The School of Life". School Reading List. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
10. ^ Levy, Lisa (11 May 2013). "How To Think More (But Not Better): Alain de Botton's School of Life". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
11. ^ WORSE Philosophy Videos! School of Life on Eastern Philosophy - Lao Tzu, 17 March 2021, archived from the original on 20 December 2021, retrieved 15 June 2021
12. ^ Howard, Jeffrey (2019). "'The School of Life' Preaches Pessimism Over Romanticism." Erraticus. Retrieved March 18, 2023. [1]

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* The Book of Life – online database material produced by The School of Life
* Official YouTube Channel