Transcendence for Beginners

Transcendence for Beginners examines life writing and philosophy across certain European and Indian traditions, exploring questions of childhood and mortality, art and religion, beauty and loss. Informed by her experience as a biographer of Søren Kierkegaard and George Eliot as well as her own life, Clare Carlisle asks what one human existence can reveal, and how writing can transmit its truth. Intellectually stimulating and deeply moving, Transcendence for Beginners enacts a philosophy of the heart, told by a generous and compelling guide. This bold, enlivening work asserts Carlisle's place as one of our most innovative thinkers.



Clare Carlisle is the author of eight books on philosophy and philosophers, including Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard and The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life, which won the 2024 PEN Prize for Biography. Clare grew up in Manchester, studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, and now lives in Hackney. She is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London.