Category Archives: Epicurus

Opinions, Expectations, and Emotions

Following up on my series of posts about the phenomenon of opinion, I’ve been pondering the relationship between opinions, expectations, and emotions. It’s well known that emotions are based on a conception of how things are or should be (as a simple example, one person might get excited by a Fourth of July fireworks displayContinue reading “Opinions, Expectations, and Emotions”

Aristotle on Ways of Life

While I’m reflecting on philosophies and ways of life, I thought it would be interesting to look at what Aristotle says about ways of life in his writings on ethics. First, he states that there is a fundamentally human way of life or bios (it always helps to remember that Aristotle founded the science ofContinue reading “Aristotle on Ways of Life”

A Friend by Any Other Name

It is said that when the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus died, he left behind thousands of friends. This was 2300 years before Facebook, so how could he have befriended so many people? I suspect that most of them were not dear friends (it’s impossible to be close to that many people) but instead students orContinue reading “A Friend by Any Other Name”

Holding Multiple Opinions

Sometimes it’s difficult to hold fewer opinions in your own mind or to engage in cognitive empathy toward others; that’s when it can help to hold multiple opinions at the same time. This might sound like the mental equivalent of juggling plates, but it’s a skill worth cultivating (and one with an ancient pedigree, asContinue reading “Holding Multiple Opinions”

Speaking Freely

Emerson was really onto something when he spoke about the high freedom of great conversation. I’ve been thinking about two more aspects of such freedom. First, great conversation requires great spontaneity. Although when conversing we might have a deep goal of sharing and discovery, our conversation doesn’t have an agenda or a script and weContinue reading “Speaking Freely”

Philosophy and Money

Some great thinkers – Plato, Aristotle, Gautama Siddhartha, Epicurus, Thoreau, Rand, and many more – have reflected deeply on the place of money and wealth in human life. The reasons are not hard to find: In many ways we are a grasping, materialistic, status-driven species. It’s all too easy to have an unhealthy relationship (asContinue reading “Philosophy and Money”

Justifying Anger

In my last post, I extrapolated from the philosophy of Epicurus to indicate how to avoid unjustified anger and its less virulent siblings (annoyance, frustration, disappointment, etc.). Indeed, Epicurus seems to have been the first person to identify what centuries later became the seven deadly sins – one of which was anger. Aristotle, by contrast,Continue reading “Justifying Anger”

Philosophy and Anger

The world is full of anger, both well-founded and ill-founded. In a future post I’ll talk about well-founded anger, but this time I’ll provide some reflections on ill-founded anger. In Chapter 10 of my book Letters on Happiness, I perceived an insight from Epicurus into the nature of anger (although this is an extrapolation from whatContinue reading “Philosophy and Anger”