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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

3:58

Epicurus on sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/04/26

“When I say that pleasure is the goal of living I do not mean the pleasures of libertines or the pleasures inherent in positive enjoyment, as is supposed by certain persons who are ignorant of our doctrine or who are not in agreement with it or who interpret it perversely.I mean, on the contrary, the pleasure that consists in freedom from bodily pain and mental agitation. The pleasant life is not the product of one drinking party after another or of sexual intercourse with women and boys or of the

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4:10

Cicero on the fact that the dead don’t need anything

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/04/19

“But should we grant them even this, that people are by death deprived of good things; would it follow that the dead are therefore in need of the good things of life, and are miserable on that account? …Can those who do not exist be in need of anything? To be in need of has a melancholy sound, because it in effect amounts to this — they had, but they have not; they regret, they look back upon, they want.Such are, I suppose, the distresses of one who is in need of. Are they deprived of eyes? to be

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4:38

Epictetus on the Stoic opposition

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/03/29

“Helvidius Priscus saw this, too, and acted on the insight.When Vespasian told him not to attend a meeting of the Senate, he replied, ‘You have the power to disqualify me as a senator, but as long as I am one, I’m obliged to attend meetings.’‘All right, then, attend the meeting,’ says Vespasian, ‘but don’t say anything.’ ‘Don’t ask me for my opinion and I’ll keep quiet.’‘But I’m bound to ask you.’ ‘And I’m bound to say what seems right.’‘But if you speak, I’ll have you killed.’ ‘Did I ever tell you

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4:20

Cicero on the right time to die

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/03/15

“The case of our friend Pompey was something better: once, when he had been very ill at Naples, the Neapolitans, on his recovery, put crowns on their heads, as did those of Puteoli; the people flocked from the country to congratulate him—it is a Grecian custom, and a foolish one; still, it is a sign of good fortune.But the question is, had he died, would he have been taken from good, or from evil?Certainly from evil. He would not have been engaged in a war with his father-in-law; he would not have

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5:04

An example of Socratic ignorance

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/03/12

“Lysimachus and Melesias have invited us to discuss their sons, because they’re anxious for the boys’ characters to develop in the best way possible. So, what we must do, if we claim we can, is to point out to them teachers who are known firstly to have been upstanding men in their own right and to have cared for many young men’s characters, and secondly to have taught us also. …I’ll be the first to explain my position, then, Lysimachus and Melesias, and I may say I’ve not had any instruction on the

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6:39

Plato on the need for expertise

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/03/08

“[Lysimachus] ‘I am asking you, Socrates, because it seems as if our council needs someone to act as umpire.’[Socrates] ‘What, Lysimachus? Do you intend to follow whatever course the majority of us recommends?’[Lysimachus] ‘Yes, what alternative is there, Socrates?’[Socrates] ‘Imagine there was some discussion about the kind of athletic training your son should practice: would you be influenced by the majority of us, or by the man who happened to have trained and exercised under a good coach. … I

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5:10

Cicero on the nature of the soul

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/03/01

“There are many who labor on the other side of the question, and condemn souls to death, as if they were criminals capitally convicted; nor have they any other reason to allege why the immortality of the soul appears to them to be incredible, except that they are not able to conceive what sort of thing the soul can be when disentangled from the body; just as if they could really form a correct idea as to what sort of thing it is, even when it is in the body; what its form, and size, and abode are;

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4:47

Aristotle on the point of a human life

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/02/29

“Saying that ‘happiness is best’ is something manifestly agreed on, whereas what it is still needs to be said more distinctly. Now, perhaps this would come to pass if the work of the human being should be grasped. … So whatever, then, would this work be? For living appears to be something common even to plants, but what is peculiar [to human beings] is being sought. One must set aside, then, the life characterized by nutrition as well as growth.A certain life characterized by sense perception would

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3:51

Epictetus on the purple in the toga

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/02/19

“Which is preferable, death or life? Life, of course. Pain or pleasure? Pleasure, of course.‘But if I refuse to take part in the Emperor’s show, I’ll lose my head.’ ‘Go ahead, then. Take part. But I won’t.’‘Why me and not you?’ ‘Because you’re thinking of yourself as just one thread in the toga.’ ‘Meaning what?’‘You’re bound to care about how to be similar to other people, just as a thread too wants to be no different from all the other threads. But I’d like to be purple, the little bit of

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5:05

Epictetus and the chamber pot

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/02/15

“In order to determine what is and isn’t reasonable, we not only take account of the values of external things, but each of us also takes his role into consideration. For one person it’s reasonable to fetch someone else’s chamber pot, because he’s focused on the fact that, if he doesn’t do it, he’ll be flogged and denied food, while, if he does, nothing unpleasant or painful will happen to him.But another person not only considers it unbearable to do that but can’t stand even the idea of someone

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5:16

Cicero on good reasons for dying

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/02/05

“Cato left this world in such a manner as if he were delighted that he had found an opportunity of dying; for that God who presides in us forbids our departure hence without his leave. But when God himself has given us a just cause, as formerly he did to Socrates, and lately to Cato, and often to many others — in such a case, certainly every man of sense would gladly exchange this darkness for that light.For the whole life of a philosopher is, as the same philosopher says, a meditation on death.”

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4:33

Epicurus on pleasure vs pain

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/01/22

“Because of the very fact that pleasure is our primary and congenital good we do not select every pleasure; there are times when we forgo certain pleasures, particularly when they are followed by too much unpleasantness. Furthermore, we regard certain states of pain as preferable to pleasures, particularly when greater satisfaction results from our having submitted to discomforts for a long period of time.Thus every pleasure is a good by reason of its having a nature akin to our own, but not every

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4:49

Aristotle and the ultimate good

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/01/18

“Let us go back again to the good being sought, whatever it might be. For it appears to be one thing in one action or art, another in another: it is a different thing in medicine and in generalship, and so on with the rest. What, then, is the good in each of these? Or is it that for the sake of which everything else is done? In medicine, this is health; in generalship, victory; in house building, a house; and in another, it would be something else. But in every action and choice, it is the end

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4:05

Epicurus and the three kinds of pleasures

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/01/12

“It should be recognized that within the category of desire certain desires are natural, certain others unnecessary and trivial; that in the case of the natural desires certain ones are necessary, certain others merely natural; and that in the case of necessary desires certain ones are necessary for happiness, others to promote freedom from bodily discomfort, others for the maintenance of life itself.” (Letter to Menoeceus, 2) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other

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5:05

Epictetus on what is or is not reasonable

Practical Wisdom ·

2024/01/04

“For a rational being, the only unbearable thing is unreasonableness, but anything reasonable is bearable. Being beaten isn’t in itself unbearable.‘What do you mean?’Look at it this way: the Spartans submit to being flogged once they’ve realized that it’s a reasonable thing to do.‘But being hanged is unbearable, isn’t it?’Except that when a person feels that it’s a reasonable thing to do, he’ll go and hang himself.In short, if we look carefully, we’ll find that nothing distresses a rational being as

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6:06

Cicero on the fact that death doesn’t deprive us of...

Practical Wisdom ·

2023/10/25

“Who is there, then, that does not lament the loss of his friends, principally from imagining them deprived of the conveniences of life? Take away this opinion, and you remove with it all grief; for no one is afflicted merely on account of a loss sustained by himself.Perhaps we may be sorry, and grieve a little; but that bitter lamentation and those mournful tears have their origin in our apprehensions that he whom we loved is deprived of all the advantages of life, and is sensible of his loss

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4:32

Plato on knowledge vs inspiration

Practical Wisdom ·

2023/10/02

“SOCRATES: And when you make a judgement about military matters, do you judge in virtue of your skill in generalship, or in virtue of the skill that makes you a good rhapsode?ION: There’s no difference, so far as I can see.SOCRATES: No difference? How on earth can you say that? Are you saying that the skill of a rhapsode and the skill of a general are one skill, or two?ION: One, I think.SOCRATES: So, anyone who’s a good rhapsode is in fact a good general too?ION: Certainly, Socrates. …SOCRATES: Now

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5:51

Aristotle on the three kinds of happy life

Practical Wisdom ·

2023/09/18

“On the basis of the lives they lead, the many … seem to suppose, not unreasonably, that the good and happiness are pleasure. And thus they cherish the life of enjoyment.The especially prominent ways of life are three: the one just mentioned, the political, and, third, the contemplative. …The refined and active … choose honor, for this is pretty much the end of the political life. But it appears to be more superficial than what is being sought, for honor seems to reside more with those who bestow it

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5:49

Epicurus on death and the gods

Practical Wisdom ·

2023/09/11

“You should do and practice all the things I constantly recommended to you, with the knowledge that they are the fundamentals of the good life.First of all, you should think of deity as imperishable and blessed being, … and you should not attribute to it anything foreign to its immortality or inconsistent with its blessedness.The gods do indeed exist, since our knowledge of them is a matter of clear and distinct perception; but they are not like what the masses suppose them to be. …The masses, by

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4:49

Epictetus on dying or having lunch

Practical Wisdom ·

2023/09/04

“What was it that Agrippinus used to say?‘I’m not going to make obstacles for myself.’He was informed that his case was being heard in the Senate.‘That’s as it may be. But it’s the fifth hour now’—this was when it was his custom to exercise and take a cold bath—‘so let’s go and exercise.’Afterward, someone came up to him and said, ‘You’ve been condemned.’‘To exile,’ says he, ‘or death?’‘Exile.’‘What about my property?”“It’s not been seized.’‘So let’s go to Aricia and have breakfast there.’That’s

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