Ironic Life is the most recent book of the American philosopher Richard Bernstein. Written with an enjoyable, precise and clear prose, the book has as a guiding question: what is the relationship between irony and living a human and happy life? Bernstein analyzes and examines the different conceptions of irony in four contemporary philosophers - Jonathan Lear, Richard Rory, Gregory Vlastos and Alexander Nehamas - and then offers his own systematic synthesis, recovering the strengths and rejecting the limitations of the authors in question. The irony, the author tells us, is central to living in a virtuous and happy way. No one can be truly human unless he incorporates an ironic dimension into his existence. Socrates and Kierkegaard, the two greatest ironists in history, are central to Bernstein's discussion and help us as models to learn to live the ironic life.
Bernstein shares a critical look at contemporary academic philosophy. "Contemporary academic philosophers," says Bernstein, "have focused exclusively on philosophy as a theoretical discipline and have forgotten the tradition of philosophy as a way of life. The current philosophy is at risk of becoming a pedantic issue, narrow and irrelevant if the philosophers do not decide to recover the conception of philosophy as the art of living. Irony can help us both to rejuvenate the current state of philosophy and to live more dignified, humane and noble lives. "