The Stoic experience consists in becoming sharply aware of the tragic situation of human beings, who are conditioned by fate. It would seem that we are not free at all, for it is not up to us to be beautiful, strong, healthy, or rich, to feel pleasure, or to escape suffering. All these things depend … Read more
People’s unhappiness comes from the fact that they want to obtain what they think is good, or to escape what they think is bad. It doesn’t matter what we do, so long as we do it with an attitude of indifference. Thus, according to Pyrrho’s philosophy our goal should be to seek stability in a … Read more
Whoever adopted the Epicurean or Stoic way of life and put it into practice would be considered a philosopher, even if he or she did not develop a philosophical discourse, either written or oral. In a sense, Cynicism was also a popular, missionary philosophy. From the time of Diogenes, the Cynics had been ardent propagandists … Read more
Training in dialectics was absolutely necessary, insofar as Plato’s disciples were destined to play a role in their city. In a civilization where political discourse was central, young people had to be trained to have a perfect mastery of speech and reasoning. Yet, in Plato’s eyes, such mastery was dangerous, for it risked making young … Read more
Might not Socrates be the prototype for that image of the philosopher so widespread, yet so false-who flees the difficulties of life in order to take refuge within his good conscience? On the other hand, the portrait of Socrates as sketched by Alcibiades in Plato’s Symposium-and also by Xenophon-reveals a man who participated fully in … Read more
Dominion by Tom Holland is the story of Christianity’s influence on the world. The Romans thought that being crucified was the worst possible fate and that it should only be dished out to slaves. How incredible that people could have come to believe that one particular crucifixion victim—an unassuming provincial by the name of Jesus—should … Read more
What are the foundations of its morality, if not a myth? A myth, though, is not a lie. At its most profound – as Tolkien, that devout Catholic, always argued – a myth can be true. To be a Christian is to believe that God became man and suffered a death as terrible as any … Read more
When Krafft-Ebing invented the word ’sadism’ to describe those who took erotic pleasure in inflicting pain, he was implicitly associating the Marquis with inquisitors such as Conrad of Marburg. Even more shocking to devout sensibilities, however, was his analysis of what he termed – after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, an Austrian nobleman with a taste for … Read more
But Voltaire – baptized into the Catholic Church and educated by the Jesuits, whom he publicly lambasted as power-hungry pedophiles, but privately saluted for their learning – did not take up the cause out of any sympathy for Protestantism. That September, as he was busy preparing his case, a letter arrived which addressed him as … Read more
The Chinese seemed to have no concept either of creation or of a god. Rather than a universe obedient to the laws of an omnipotent deity, they believed instead in a naturally occurring order, formed by constituent elements – fire, water, earth, metal, wood – that were forever waxing and waning in succession. Everything went … Read more