Consolations of Philosophy

This six part series on philosophy is presented by popular British philosopher Alain de Botton, featuring six thinkers who have influenced history, and their ideas about the pursuit of the happy life.

Episode 1: Socrates on Self-Confidence - Why do so many people go along with the crowd and fail to stand up for what they truly believe? Partly because they are too easily swayed by other people’s opinions and partly because they don’t know when to have confidence in their own.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rsiER-OnU

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28VIz9gg0po

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNaeL7vdax8

Episode 2: Epicurus on Happiness - discusses the personal implications of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270BCE) who was no epicurean glutton or wanton consumerist,but an advocate of “friends, freedom and thought” as the path to happiness.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20LTTRQcZ8c

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz1ItMUafgY

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCyIohPjVs8

Episode 3: Seneca on Anger - Roman philosopher Lucious Annaeus Seneca (4BCE-65CE), the most famous and popular philosopher of his day, took the subject of anger seriously enough to dedicate a whole book to the subject. Seneca refused to see anger as an irrational outburst over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical problem and amenable to treatment by philosophical argument. He thought anger arose from certain rationally held ideas about the world, and the problem with these ideas is that they are far too optimistic. Certain things are a predictable feature of life, and to get angry about them is to have unrealistic expectations.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0g7IKWG7E

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUxCL7hbQiA

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFKBxDC8L9U

Episode 4: Montaigne on Self-Esteem looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself - sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority - and then offered practical solutions for overcoming them.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSCoG2GY1M

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-CJ-YmDU9I

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qltfvUUdfZM

Episode 5: Schopenhauer on Love - surveys the 19th Century German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who believed that love was the most important thing in life because of its powerful impulse towards ‘the will-to-life’.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeFQsF-umH0

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZRivYwt17Y

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZvD41Mft2A

Episode 6: Nietzsche on Hardship - explores Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) dictum that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the experience of overcoming hardship. For him, any existence that is too comfortable is worthless, as are the twin refugees of drink or religion.

(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pilLBcdSMI

(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhET47_CMRQ

(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34eNM7R7N5o