极简生活可以唤起沈睡的想像力，削弱习惯的力量！从Apple创办人贾伯斯(Steve Jobs)和Facebook创办人祖克柏(Mark Zuckerberg)都是奉行极简主义的人。
 
时至今日，追求极简生活已成为反消费主义者丶环保主义者和任何关心人类对地球造成影响的人的战斗口号！但是，到底极简生活有何革新之处呢？ 为何今日许多人如此崇尚於极简生活的方式？但又为何有时人类仍然抗拒让生活更简单呢？
 
《极简生活哲学》一书汇集了自古至今各式各样奉行简单生活者的信念与哲学，从美国名作家梭罗 （Henry David Thoreau）到苹果公司创办人贾斯伯等等。此外，本书也讲到极简生活的相关实践方式，比方：减少追求财富及官感满足的消费生活风格的「自发性简朴生活」（Voluntary Simplicity），或是「去增长」（degrowth）的概念，其最终意味着我们的东西会更少，也就是说没那麽多人工作和生产物资，商店就没有那麽多品牌，时尚更替也不会那麽快速便宜丶一次性商品也会相对减少。
 
这是一本在众声喧哗的年代里，让人倾听到宁静之声，是必读的好书。对於那些渴望追求极简生活的人，不仅本书可带来新启发外，也促使人相信极简生活是个贴合实际，并非好高骛远的目标，可以说极简生活是更让人感到幸福的。
 

书评
‘Brillaud’s superb work is a powerful reminder that Western intellectual and cultural history is full of admiration for simple living. In an age of soaring emissions and growing environmental impacts, a return to simplicity － to localism, to conscious living, to low-impact lifestyles is not only a means of survival and an ethical imperative, but also a pathway to rediscovering the basic joys of life.’ － Jeremy Caradonna, author of Sustainability: A History
 
‘Thoughtful and beautifully written, this is a rich portrait gallery of fellow humans － from Diogenes and Trappist monks to Prince Charles and advocates of Buen Vivir － attuned to the quiet activity of hearing the murmur of life. A must-read in our era of noise and distraction.’ － Phillip John Usher, New York University
 
‘In a world increasingly exhausted by technical complexity and political convolution, Jérôme Brillaud provides a much needed and timely reassessment of the ancient principle and practice of simple living . . . this book is a profoundly rich appreciation of simple living. It is a powerfully insightful work that deserves wide attention at a time of unprecedented confoundment and burden in the human condition.’ － Brendan Gleeson, author of The Urban Condition
 

目录
Introduction: What’s in a Name?
1. Simple Beginnings
2. Walking in Simplicity
3. The ‘Gift to Be Simple’
4. A Simple Reform
5. Simplicity Made Simple
Conclusion: A Simple Voice
 

关於作者
Jérôme Brillaud博士是英国曼彻斯特大学的法语系讲师。他着有《Sombres Lumières》 (2011) 一书 ，曾撰写过不少关於早期现代哲学和文学的论文。