- What makes people happy? – the table of virtues and vices
- What are friends for?
- friends – the interest in pleasure and the opportunity of the moment
- friends as strategic acquintances
- true friend – someone not like you but about whom you care as much as you care about yourself.
- How can ideas cut through in a busy world?
- soothe people’s fears
- see the emotional part of the issue
Catégorie : Great Thinkers
Epicurus
The ancient Greek philosopher wanted to know how to be happy. He started a school for happiness called The Garden.
He believed people make three mistakes when thinking about happiness:
- We need romantic relationships – never put too much faith in relationships, friendships are more rewarding
- We need lots of money – the desire for money and prestige brings jealousy, backbiting. Working is satisfying when there is a sense of fulfilment though our labour
- Too much faith in luxury – what we really want is calm.
Three major changes Epicurus made in his life:
- He decided to live together with his friends and founded a commune
- Every in the commune stopped working for other people. They had less money but bigger satisfaction
- He and his friends spent periods of every day finding calm
Stoicism
The best guides: Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Their teachings are sobering but consoling. Feel heroic and defiant in the face of our many troubles.
Stoicism can help with the following problems:
- Anxiety – Stoics propose to courageously come on terms with the very worst possibilities. We will cope no matter what it will happen.
- Fury – angry is caused by an incorrect picture of existence, the collision of hope and reality. In order to be happy expect far less from life. Reach a state where simply nothing could suddenly disturb your peace of mind.
- Paranoia -Don’t wonder why it happened to you. It may neither be your nor anyone else’s fault.
- Loss of perspective – Contemplation of the heavans. Nothing that happens to us is of any consequence whatsoever from the cosmic perspective.