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John Vespasian

JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of eighteen books, including “When everything fails, try this” (2009), “Rationality is the way to happiness” (2009), “The philosophy of builders” (2010), “The 10 principles of rational living” (2012), “Rational living, rational working” (2013), “Consistency: The key to permanent stress relief” (2014), “On becoming unbreakable” (2015), “Thriving in difficult times” (2016), “Causality: Aristotle’s life and ideas” (2024), “Foresight: Schopenhauer’s life and ideas” (2024),

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All Episodes

00:05:15

Controversy in Michel de Montaigne’s wisdom

John Vespasian ·

2025/10/07

Wisdom without controversy is soon forgotten, in the same way as one forgets unused knowledge, unused spare parts, and unused train tickets. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) made a conscious decision to use controversy in his essays, precisely because he wanted the lessons to be learned and not forgotten. Besides, Montaigne found it much more interesting to write about unorthodox, dissonant ideas; he knew all the mainstream doctrines of his century, and found them unworthy of his time. He had better

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00:06:28

Michel de Montaigne and self-discipline

John Vespasian ·

2025/10/07

Life would be much easier if we could reduce ethics to just one concept. Would it not be great if we could make decisions and implementation plans that always hit the target? Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) took upon himself the task of reducing ethics to one concept, and he succeeded pretty well. Montaigne believed that self-discipline constitutes the pillar that sustains ethics, success and personal effectiveness. In most cases, people know what they should be doing, but they fail to do it because

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00:06:43

Michel de Montaigne’s advice on self-discipline

John Vespasian ·

2025/10/07

There is very little benefit in telling people to do something without telling them how. I mean without telling them exactly how. Clear and precise instructions are the prerequisite of good implementation. Without those, success will depend on luck or serendipity. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was aware that morality and happiness depend on self-discipline. Nonetheless, he had witnessed hundreds of times that people will declare their good intentions, and then fail to follow up. Self-discipline

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00:05:58

Michel de Montaigne and happiness

John Vespasian ·

2025/10/07

To a great extent, happiness is the result of good philosophy accompanied by good implementation. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) wrote essays for two decades with the sole goal of clarifying the path to happiness. He wanted to build himself a philosophy and a lifestyle conducive to happiness. What lessons did Montaigne learn during his two decades of philosophical exploration? He learned that happiness depends on one’s lifestyle choices more than on anything else. We build our own happiness step by

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00:06:41

Individuality and determinism in Schopenhauer

John Vespasian ·

2025/10/02

You do not need to search long to find philosophers that rate Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) as the ultimate advocate of determinism. Nonetheless, they are wrong; their categorisation of Schopenhauer as deterministic is superficial and overlooks a large number of key aspects in Schopenhauer’s philosophy. When analysing a philosopher, one must place his ideas at a certain point in the scale of determinism versus individuality. It is particularly easy to err if you don’t study philosophical ideas in

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00:04:56

Aristotle’s views on the nature of reality and existence

John Vespasian ·

2025/10/02

The enormous achievements of Aristotle come to light when you compare his ideas with those of other thinkers. Especially during the decade that he devoted to lecturing in Athens (335-325 BC), he came up with very accurate insights on the nature of reality and existence. As he explains in his book “Metaphysics,” each entity in the world possesses a unique essence or nature. In broad terms, the essence of an entity is determined by its “material cause” (the matter that constitutes it) and its “formal

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00:08:56

Michel de Montaigne’s literary works and themes

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/25

For twenty years, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) spent a good part of his days writing his essays. He made no planning, organisation, or outline of the whole. Instead, he let his works grow organically and spontaneously. Eventually, he compiled his essays in volumes ready for publication. Montaigne’s literary themes have been identified by critics, not by Montaigne himself. As his essays piled up over time, he returned often to certain subjects, those that appealed to him in particular. Sometimes,

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00:06:07

Michel de Montaigne and the pursuit of knowledge

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/25

I agree with Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) that most of what we learn is of questionable accuracy. He preached by example because, for twenty years, he wrote haphazard essays on disorganised, sometimes obscure, subjects. Allegedly, he was looking for wisdom, but in practice, his doubts grew increasingly larger. Practical knowledge is great if you can get it. The very worst way to search knowledge is to do it randomly as Montaigne did. He explored subjects in the fields of children’s education,

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00:06:19

Critique of Michel de Montaigne’s method for pursuing...

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/25

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) devoted substantial time and effort to pursuing knowledge, but he employed a rather haphazard method. He would spend a week writing an essay on some important subject, but then failed to draw clear conclusions. I know that Montaigne was employing a confusing, chaotic, erratic method because it happened all too often that he found himself unable to draw conclusions. When I read Montaigne’s essays, I discovered that one third of them fail to pass judgement on the issue

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00:05:33

Michel de Montaigne and the importance of reading

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/25

There cannot be complex thinking without reading. Ancient Greek philosophers established the basis of civilization in great part because of their ability to write cogently and build on the knowledge accumulated by their predecessors. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) spent thousands of hours reading, especially works by authors from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. He read them in their original Latin, or in Latin translations from Greek. The reason why Montaigne knew many quotations by heart is

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00:06:59

Schopenhauer’s theory of the will compared to other...

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/04

The influence of the theory of the will developed by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) has not always been acknowledged by those who had imitated his ideas. More often than not, other thinkers have quietly adopted Schopenhauer’s insights without giving him credit. Max Stirner (1806-1856) belongs to the next generation and wrote “The Ego and Its Own” in 1845. It is a fact that Stirner published his work twenty-seven years after Schopenhauer had brought out “The world as will and representation,” but

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00:05:56

Reasons for the similarities and differences between...

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/04

There is substantial overlapping between the philosophies of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). The main reason for their similarities is that both men were dissatisfied with the Enlightenment ideas (from Kant and other thinkers) that dominated European universities. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche were not the only ones to feel discontented, but they expressed their rebellion in similar ways and employed similar terminology (I am referring to the theory of the will)

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00:06:54

Origins of the similarities and differences between...

John Vespasian ·

2025/09/04

Considering the rather miserable life of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), it is fair to ask why he grew apart from the ideas presented by Schopenhauer (1788-1860), instead of endorsing them and building them further. I must start by saying that the differences in personality and motivation between Schopenhauer and Nietzsche developed in a period of thirty years. You can observe those differences in the writing style of the young Nietzsche compared to the style in his last decades. Schopenhauer’s

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00:05:55

Michel de Montaigne on self-discovery and...

John Vespasian ·

2025/06/05

Like many other authors, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) regarded writing as a process of self-discovery; he talked about self-discovery through self-expression. He meant that we get to know ourselves better when we outline our ideas in writing, or when we convey our thoughts to other people. However, Montaigne knew that introspection is difficult and that most meditation techniques will fail to deliver the desired results. People seldom become more philosophical or effective by pushing themselves

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00:06:26

Michel de Montaigne on the limits to self-discovery...

John Vespasian ·

2025/06/05

Social constraints are not a new phenomenon in history. In one way or another, they have existed as long as social structures. They reflect the displeasure of the people who hold the dominant opinions, and their attempts to prevent criticism and irreverent comments. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) wrote essays entailing self-discovery and self-expression, but at the same time, he avoided acute controversy and provocation. He wisely spoke in favour of tolerance, and refrained from putting his figures

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00:06:40

Self-discipline and Michel de Montaigne’s...

John Vespasian ·

2025/06/05

Erroneously, philosophers often attribute achievements and heroism to the ability to withstand pressure, social or physical, in extreme situations. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) came up with a more realistic view. Instead of looking at extreme situations in isolation, he saw them as part of a normal process, where things evolve either in one direction or the other, ceaselessly shifting from day to day, from good to worse, and then back to good. Montaigne had drawn this essential lesson from

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00:06:13

Literary creativity in Michel de Montaigne’s essays

John Vespasian ·

2025/05/22

I define creativity as the ability to do great things with few resources. It is a combination of ingenuity, resourcefulness and focus; note that this definition includes a useful output as a key requirement. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is the archetype of long-term literary creativity; while his ingenuity and resourcefulness earned him a prominent place as an essayist, his focus turned him into a philosopher. What was Montaigne’s purpose in writing? To gather facts, assess them independently,

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00:05:48

The key to Michel de Montaigne’s literary creativity

John Vespasian ·

2025/05/22

In contrast to writers in our century, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) never claimed to be extraordinarily creative. Even during his last years, when it was obvious that he had produced a remarkable output, his attitude remained modest. Historians have speculated whether Montaigne’s talent was innate or acquired, original or the result of imitation, a case of genius or of incidental circumstances. I view those debates as pointless because Montaigne himself had revealed the source of his creativity

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00:07:07

Michel de Montaigne's literary style

John Vespasian ·

2025/05/22

The literary style of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) teaches us key lessons in the field of self-improvement. I mean lessons of universal validity that anyone can put into practice right now. Literary critics have analysed Montaigne’s works from the standpoint of tone, subjects, and structure. I am however going to concentrate on Montaigne’s philosophical style and refer to all other aspects along the way. I am convinced that philosophy is the driver of Montaigne’s literary style. His philosophical

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00:06:45

Philosophical lessons from Michel de Montaigne’s...

John Vespasian ·

2025/05/22

Style is the opposite of randomness and disharmony. When we say of a person or item that “they have style,” we mean that they stand apart; that they possess characteristics making them recognisable at first sight. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) turned his philosophical convictions into a literary style, one that stands apart because of its goals, structure and logic. Montaigne’s essays possess an array of characteristics that make them unique, and convey key philosophical lessons. In order to

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52 results

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