x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Practical Wisdom

Massimo Pigliucci

Practical Wisdom is a short weekly podcast produced by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci of the City College of New York. The idea is to do a deep dive into some of the most crucial philosophical writings of a wide range of Greco-Roman authors in search of insights that may be useful for modern life. Available also on Apple, Google, and Spotify. figsinwintertime.substack.com

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

5:17

Epictetus on what we should be focusing on

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/07/22

“‘But I would have that which seems best to me happen in every case, no matter how it comes to seem so.’You are mad; you are beside yourself. Do you not know that freedom is a noble and precious thing? But for me to desire at haphazard that those things should happen which have at haphazard seemed best to me, is dangerously near being, not merely not noble, but even in the highest degree shameful.For how do we act in writing? Do I desire to write the name ‘Dio’ as I choose? No, but I am taught to

en

4:50

Epictetus on family affection

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/04/29

“When an official came to see him, Epictetus, after making some special enquiries about other matters, asked him if he had children and a wife, and when the other replied that he had, Epictetus asked the further question, What, then, is your experience with marriage? — Wretched, he said. — To which Epictetus, How so? For men do not marry and beget children just for this surely, to be wretched, but rather to be happy. — And yet, as for me, the other replied, I feel so wretched about the little

en

4:34

Epictetus on people’s obsession with material goods

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/04/22

“If we philosophers had applied ourselves to our own work as zealously as the old men at Rome have applied themselves to the matters on which they have set their hearts, perhaps we too should be accomplishing something. I know a man older than myself who is now in charge of the grain supply at Rome. When he passed this place on his way back from exile, I recall what a tale he told as he inveighed against his former life and announced for the future that, when he had returned to Rome, he would devote

en

5:19

Epictetus on the consequences of human nature

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/04/15

“If what is said by the philosophers regarding the kinship of Nature and people be true, what other course remains for us but that which Socrates took when asked to what country he belonged, never to say ‘I am an Athenian,’ or ‘I am a Corinthian,’ but ‘I am a citizen of the universe’? For why do you say that you are an Athenian, instead of mentioning merely that corner into which your paltry body was cast at birth? …As soon as you have had your fill to-day, you sit lamenting about the morrow, by

en

4:24

Epictetus on important vs accidental qualities

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/04/08

“Was not Plato a philosopher? Yes, and was not Hippocrates a physician? But you see how eloquently Hippocrates expresses himself. Does Hippocrates, then, express himself so eloquently by virtue of his being a physician?Why, then, do you confuse things that for no particular reason have been combined in the same man? Now if Plato was handsome and strong, ought I to sit down and strive to become handsome, or become strong, on the assumption that this is necessary for philosophy, because a certain

en

5:05

Epictetus on the usefulness of logic

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/04/04

“Most people are unaware that the handling of arguments which involve equivocal and hypothetical premisses, and, further, of those which derive syllogisms by the process of interrogation, and, in general, the handling of all such arguments, has a bearing upon the duties of life. For our aim in every matter of inquiry is to learn how the good and excellent person may find the appropriate course through it and the appropriate way of conducting themselves in it. …For what is the professed object of

en

4:57

Plato on being friends without knowing what...

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/02/14

“‘Shall we assume, then, that … the bad is akin to the bad; the good to the good; and what is neither good nor bad to what is neither good nor bad?’They said they thought it was so: each was akin to its counterpart.‘In that case, boys,’ I said, ‘haven’t we fallen back into those first statements of ours about friendship, which we rejected, since one unjust man will be a friend to another unjust man, a bad man to another bad man, no less than one good man to another good man?’‘It would appear so,’

en

4:44

Plato on loving things for the sake of other things

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/02/07

“‘All right then,’ I said. ‘Now that we’ve got as far as this, boys, let’s be careful not to be deceived.’ …‘Let’s consider the following case: medicine, we say, is a friend for the sake of health.’‘Yes.’‘Is health a friend too, then?’‘Of course.’‘If it is a friend, it is so for the sake of something.’‘Yes.’‘And that something is a friend, if it is to be consistent with what we admitted earlier.’‘Of course.’‘And that too, in its turn, will be a friend for the sake of a friend?’‘Yes.’‘Well then,

en

5:00

Plato on who really loves wisdom

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/01/31

“‘That’s why we’d say that those who are already wise, whether they are gods or men, no longer love wisdom, and that those who are so ignorant that they are bad do not love wisdom either, because no bad or stupid man loves wisdom.So, we’re left with those who possess that bad thing, ignorance, but have not yet been rendered foolish or stupid by it, in that they still believe they don’t know what they don’t know.Consequently those who are still neither good nor bad do, in fact, love wisdom; whereas

en

4:19

Plato on why friendship between bad people is not...

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/01/24

“‘Have you come across the writings of our wisest men, which say that like must always be friend to like? These are, of course, the men who discuss and write about nature and the universe.’‘That’s true,’ he said.‘Well,’ I said, ‘are they right?’‘Possibly,’ he replied. …[But] ‘We think that the closer one wicked man gets to another wicked man and the more he associates with him, the more he becomes hated by him, because he wrongs him; and it is, of course, impossible for wronger and wronged to be

en

4:37

Epicurus on justice and injustice

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/01/10

“The justice that seeks nature’s goal is a utilitarian pledge of men not to harm each other or be harmed.Nothing is either just or unjust in the eyes of those animals that have been unable to make agreements not to harm each other or be harmed. …Justice was never an entity in itself. It is a kind of agreement not to harm or be harmed.It is impossible for a person who underhandedly breaks the agreement not to harm or be harmed to feel sure that he will escape punishment, even though he manages to do

en

3:44

Epicurus on friendship

Practical Wisdom ·

2025/01/03

“Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of the whole man, by far the most important is the acquisition of friendship.It is the same judgment that has made us feel confident that nothing fearful is of long duration or everlasting, and that has seen personal security during our limited span of life most nearly perfected by friendship.”(Leading Doctrines, 27-28)The Philosophy Garden: Stoicism and Beyond is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work,

en

3:28

Epicurus on the importance of sense perception

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/12/27

“It is necessary to take into account both the actual goal of life and the whole body of clear and distinct perceptions to which we refer our judgments. If we fail to do this, everything will be in disorder and confusion.If you reject all sensations, you will not have any point of reference by which to judge even the ones you claim are false. …If at any time you fail to refer each of your acts to nature’s standard, and turn off instead in some other direction when making a choice to avoid or pursue,

en

3:57

Epicurus on the limits of true pleasure

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/12/20

“Bodily pleasure is not enlarged once the pains brought on by need have been done away with; it is only diversified. And the limit of mental pleasure is established by rational reflection on pleasures themselves and those kindred emotions that once instilled extreme fear in human minds.Infinite time contains no greater pleasure than does finite time, if one determines the limits of pleasure rationally. …One who understands the limits of the good life knows that what eliminates the pains brought on

en

5:50

Aristotle on pain, pleasure, virtue, and vice

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/12/13

“The pleasure or pain that accompanies someone’s deeds ought to be taken as a sign of his characteristics: he who abstains from bodily pleasures and enjoys this very abstention is moderate, but he who is vexed in doing so is licentious; he who endures terrifying things and enjoys doing so, or at any rate is not pained by it, is courageous, but he who is pained thereby is a coward. …For moral virtue is concerned with pleasures and pains: it is on account of the pleasure involved that we do base

en

5:35

Plato on the reciprocity of friendship

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/12/06

“Ever since I was a boy I’ve always desired to acquire a certain thing. You know how different people desire different things: for example one man desires to acquire horses; another, to acquire dogs; another, gold; another, honors. I’m quite indifferent to those things, but I do passionately love acquiring friends. I’d rather get a good friend than the best quail or cock in the world. …When I see you two, you and Lysis, I’m amazed, and think you must be very happy because, though you are so young,

en

3:35

Epicurus on a life of reason, nature, and withdrawal

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/11/29

“The simplest means of procuring protection from other men (which is gained to a certain extent by deterrent force) is the security of quiet solitude and withdrawal from the mass of people. …Nature’s wealth is restricted and easily won, while that of empty convention runs on to infinity. …Bad luck strikes the sophisticated man in a few cases, but reason has directed the big, essential things, and for the duration of life it is and will be the guide.”(Leading Doctrines, 14, 15, and 16) This is a

en

7:42

Epictetus on providence

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/11/22

“Who is it, then, that has fitted this to that and that to this? And who is it that has fitted the sword to the scabbard, and the scabbard to the sword? No one? Assuredly from the very structure of all made objects we are accustomed to prove that the work is certainly the product of some artificer, and has not been constructed at random. …And the male and the female, and the passion of each for intercourse with the other, and the faculty which makes use of the organs which have been constructed for

en

4:57

Cicero on the hypocrisy of certain philosophers

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/11/15

“This is the effect of philosophy, which is the medicine of our souls: it banishes all groundless apprehensions, frees us from desires, and drives away fears: but it has not the same influence over all people; it is of very great influence when it falls in with a disposition well adapted to it. …For how few philosophers will you meet with, whose life and manners are conformable to the dictates of reason! who look on their profession, not as a means of displaying their learning, but as a rule for

en

5:19

Aristotle on the importance of practicing virtue

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/11/08

“Now, since the present subject is taken up, not for the sake of contemplation, as are others—for we are conducting an examination, not so that we may know what virtue is, but so that we may become good, since otherwise there would be no benefit from it—it is necessary to examine matters pertaining to actions, that is, how one ought to perform them. For these actions have authoritative control over what sorts of characteristics come into being, just as we have said. …This, then, is the first thing

en

69 results

Similar Podcasts

The Daily Horoscope

The Daily Horoscope

The Michael Decon Program

Michael Decon

Kalimera Koveos

Andrea Koveos

The Documentary Podcast

BBC World Service

Smarter leben

DER SPIEGEL