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Aristotle’s bio
Aristotle was Plato’s student. The three greatest philosophers ever, then, came one after another: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. It is absolutely impossible to overstate Aristotle’s genius. He wrote about meteorology, biology, science, logic, astronomy, philosophy, and even veterinary science. He was so good that for 2000 years he was known as “The Philosopher”, as if there [...]
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books 1 and 2, edited
Book 1 If, then, there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of this), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that [...]
Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics decoded
Book 1 We choose everything for the sake of happiness. Happiness is the only thing we choose for itself. Of course, this sounds quite empty—it has not answered the important question, what is happiness? A man is happy when he fulfills his function. Yes, man has a function. Life is common to many things, like [...]
Epicurus’ Bio
After the Big Three (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), philosophy fell to pieces for 2000 years or so. It took Descartes to pep it up again. While most philosophers try to come up with a few guiding rules to govern our actions, Epicurus came up with 40. More is not better. More is worse. Epicurus’ doctrines [...]
Epicurus’ Principal Doctrines, unedited
1. A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness. 2. Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences no sensations, and that which has no [...]
Epicurus’ Principal Doctrines decoded
1. Do not cause trouble for yourself or for others. This lets you be free from anger and bias. These are signs of weakness. 2. Death is nothing to us. Once we become dissolved atoms, we don’t experience anything. We’re gone. Why worry if you can’t experience anything? 3. Maximum pleasure is feeling no pain. [...]
Marcus Aurelius’ bio
Marcus Aurelius was an honest-to-god emperor of Rome. He was also a great guy. He is said to have been “by nature a saint and sage, by profession a warrior and ruler”. Despite being the most powerful man in the world, Marcus Aurelius lived a simple life. He advocated working hard and wanting little; in [...]
Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, edited
Book Two Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the [...]
Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations decoded
Book 2 Say this to yourself every morning: “Today, I will meet the busybodies, the ungrateful, the arrogant and the unsocial. It’s not their fault: they do not know about good and evil. I do know. I know that the good is beautiful and the bad is ugly. I know that these churls are just [...]
David Hume’s bio
David Hume was one smart guy. He started university at 10. He wrote one of the greatest books of philosophy at 26. His early life, though, seems to have been a bit of a disaster. His dad died when David was only 2. Nobody liked his first book—the important one—and after he graduated, because he [...]