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

John Vespasian

JOHN VESPASIAN is the author of sixteen 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),

science social sciences

All Episodes

7:04

Cato in Michel de Montaigne and the Renaissance

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/27

Ancient Stoicism plays an important role in the “Essays” by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The essays contain a large number of references to Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, two of the leading thinkers in Stoicism. In addition, Montaigne refers on many occasions to Cato (95-46 BC), who also falls in this philosophical movement. He devoted to Cato a specific essay, which carries the title “On Cato the Younger.” As it was his usual practice, Montaigne employs the essay’s theme as a starting point for

en

6:14

Simplicity in Michel de Montaigne and the Renaissance

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/27

Historians attribute to Tacitus (and Cicero to a lesser extent) a style characterised by short, profound sentences that can be interpreted at different levels. Tacitus and Cicero were highly admired in the Renaissance, precisely for that reason. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) produced many quotable texts, but did not follow Tacitus’ and Cicero’s approach. Those must have spent hours polishing each sentence, trying to get their ideas across in a distinctly concise manner. For Montaigne, speed was

en

6:16

Results orientation in Michel de Montaigne and the...

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/27

Renaissance art is reputed for its proportion and harmony. It represents the human figure in an idealised manner, which also remains realistic. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) represents the Renaissance in literature, but he cared more for results than for proportion, harmony, and idealism. Montaigne did not even care to be entertaining or brilliant. I find some of his “Essays” chaotic in structure and unequal in style. Montaigne’s Latin quotations sometimes contain errors, and his retelling of

en

6:40

Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/27

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) loved classical authors, philosophers or not, and read their books in Latin. For Greek authors such as Aristotle, he resorted to Latin translations that were already available in the sixteenth century. The efforts displayed by Montaigne are remarkable. Keep in mind that he was not a professional scholar. He was doing all the research himself, and purchasing those books with his own money. After moving to live in a farmhouse, he had no access to any large library in a

en

6:19

Analysis of Schopenhauer’s views on intellectual...

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) regarded intellectual and cultural pursuits as potentially detrimental; he recommended to steer away from pursuits that generate unworkable desires and ambitions. Before investing oneself in those, one should figure out the consequences. Schopenhauer’s views on intellectual pursuits are innovative and surprising. Schopenhauer is contradicting the opinions of philosophers from previous centuries. Never before in history had a Western thinker held intellectual pursuits

en

7:40

Errors in Schopenhauer’s views on the problem of evil

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

Did Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) provide a waterproof answer to the problem of evil? No, he didn’t. He got it right in part, but failed to answer the complete question. In his essay “Two fundamental problems in ethics” (1843), Schopenhauer rated evil and suffering as natural, that is, as the predictable outcome of the unimpeded will (“life force”). Only when human beings take action can they avert the negative influence of the will and counteract evil. Schopenhauer based his analysis of evil on

en

6:22

Lessons from Schopenhauer’s views on genius

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote extensively about the phenomenon of genius. His notes provide clues on how to increase one’s creativity and critical thinking. They give hands-on advice on increasing one’s self-awareness and self-reliance. Let us examine Schopenhauer’s recommendations and see if they can be applied here and now. I am going to be drawing the recommendations from Schopenhauer’s books, especially from “Parerga and Paralipomena” in its edition of 1851. Why do geniuses possess

en

6:25

Schopenhauer’s philosophy of life in daily practice

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

Epictetus, a philosopher from the 1st century AD, provides excellent guidance for the daily practice of the ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860). Schopenhauer was focused on the attainment of happiness, and Epictetus pursued tranquillity and virtue, but in practical terms, their ideas are very close. Epictetus emphasised the distinction between internal and external events. Internal events comprise our thoughts, desires, and actions. External events comprise other people’s actions and all

en

6:13

Criticism of Schopenhauer’s philosophy of art and beauty

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

Despite his efforts to develop a coherent philosophy of art and beauty, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) missed essential elements. His aesthetics theory is incomplete because it defines beauty as harmony and symmetry, that is, he exclusively refers to aspects perceivable by the senses. Why is Schopenhauer’s art theory incomplete? Because it is leaving out major art forms. His arguments about harmony and symmetry are applicable to paintings, sculpture, architecture or decorative arts. I would also

en

5:57

Origin of Schopenhauer’s views on intellectual pursuits

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

For what concerns intellectual and cultural pursuits, are the views of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) fully original or do they rely on prior philosophers? They are original because they are adding unique, innovative elements to the insights of prior thinkers. If we want to find philosophers that somewhat anticipate Schopenhauer in this respect, we need to go back twenty-two centuries. I am referring to Ancient Stoic philosophers such as Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC). Zeno held wisdom, reason and

en

7:03

Schopenhauer’s views on the relationship between art...

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/25

The relationship between art and morality plays a secondary role in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). In this area, Schopenhauer failed to establish consistent principles and incurred contradictions. Nevertheless, it teaches us lessons that are worth examining. For Schopenhauer, artistic experiences (he was in particular referring to playing music and listening to music) help people escape their pressing problems. When enjoying music, theatre, literature or painting, individuals

en

6:52

Democritus and Heraclitus: Montaigne and classical...

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/20

The study of history and philosophy is pointless unless you can draw hands-on advice. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) had understood perfectly the need to draw practical, tangible conclusions from the study of antiquity. I regard Montaigne’s essay “On Democritus and Heraclitus” as one of the best examples in the genre of critical history. Its contents are erudite and the quotations fascinating, but above all, Montaigne is seeking the truth. What is the best philosophy for achieving happiness here

en

6:07

Stoicism: Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/20

Together with scepticism and hedonism, stoicism exerted a strong influence on Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). About one third of his “Essays” convey the doctrines of stoicism. I am referring to the doctrines put forward by Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius in the first century of our era. Seneca produced a large output in terms of philosophical writings, but Epictetus was closer to Montaigne’s heart because of his concise formulations. Where Seneca wrote a whole letter (about twenty pages),

en

6:58

Cicero: Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/20

When Michel de Montaigne referred to classical philosophy in his “Essays,” his goal was to illustrate a particular point or give credibility to a certain argument. Montaigne (1533-1592) was not interested in classical philosophy as such. His primary and constant interest was the theory of happiness. Classical authors gave Montaigne a helping hand in his own philosophical path. Montaigne’s essay “A Consideration Upon Cicero” provides a paramount example of how to employ classical philosophy for

en

7:03

Aristotle: Michel de Montaigne and classical philosophy

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/20

Despite his extensive study of classical philosophy, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) paid relatively little attention to Aristotle. He quoted Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Plato and Plutarch more often than he quoted Aristotle. He devoted more efforts to understanding stoicism than he devoted to the Aristotelian views on human nature and happiness. I have a theory that explains Montaigne’s disproportionate interest in Roman authors (Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Cicero or Epictetus) compared to his

en

7:26

Michel de Montaigne and humanistic ideas

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/20

What we call “humanistic” nowadays has little to do with the work of humanists in the sixteenth century, such as Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). They were digging into the past in order to regain concepts that had been lost. They were fighting against centuries of intellectual distortion, misrepresentations, and contradictions. Montaigne would devote dozens of hours to compose a little essay such as “On the parsimony of the ancients.” He would read and reread ancient sources such as Plutarch,

en

8:06

Democritus and Heraclitus: Montaigne and humanistic...

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/20

When Renaissance authors undertook the study of antiquity, they had a practical purpose in mind. They expected to learn something useful from ancient history. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) constitutes the very best example. He read relentlessly about the lifestyle of ancient Romans and Greeks with the goal of drawing useful lessons. In his philosophical research, Montaigne adopted the same hands-on approach. Even when he researched metaphysics and epistemology, he was still looking for a recipe

en

8:08

Aristotle’s views on the nature of reality

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/18

Aristotle used a systematic method for drawing conclusions from empirical observations. His concept of reality revolves around the idea of “substance,” which actually means “entity” in the sense employed by Aristotle. Every entity, he taught, is composed of matter that takes a certain form, configuration, or shape. For Aristotle, the “form” is what characterises each entity, what defines the nature of an entity, what makes it what it is. A material (“matter”) such as wood can take different forms

en

6:02

Aristotle’s philosophy of logic

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/18

When Aristotle was born in 384 BC, logic was in its infancy and indistinguishable from rhetoric; the ancient Greeks viewed rhetoric as useful because it could help them secure a business deal or win a case in court. The purpose of rhetoric was to win; logic (even twisted logic) was just part of its arsenal. Aristotle came up with a fresh approach to logic. His books “Categories,” “Prior Analytics” and “Posterior Analytics” give us his insights in this regard. “Categories” was written around 350 BC

en

8:39

Aristotle’s concept of practical wisdom

John Vespasian ·

2025/11/18

Like Schopenhauer would do twenty-four centuries later, Aristotle regarded practical wisdom (“phronesis” in Greek) as a crucial ingredient of a happy life. In his “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle defined “phronesis” as a skill that enables us to choose the correct course of action and for the correct reasons. In other words, “phronesis” is the daily implementation of general moral principles. How do you develop practical wisdom? Through experience and rational reflection, answered Aristotle. It is

en

300 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter