Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations

Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations
© 2013 Jules Evans
320 pages

 For most, philosophy is a subject that screams impotent academic prattle, the practice of strange individuals who are clearly paid too much to gaze into their navels and pontificate on the Meaning of Lint.  That reputation is a modern one, achieved only in the last century, for most of western history philosophy was the common fount of all knowledge and artistic endeavor. It guided not only men’s thoughts about how the world was, but how they should act within it.  The streets of ancient Athens were alive with debate on how man should live.  Philosophers' answers were not uniform;  names mentioned together in survey courses now, then disagreed with one another vehemently. In Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations, author Jules Evans introduces the principles and practices of several Greek schools which, while at loggerheads on many issues, were united by some core convictions: namely, that the world was rational, that man could be happy within it, and that he could use his rationality to achieve that happiness.

Evans covers a wide variety of Greek schools, some more than others.  The schools are sampled in one-chapter lessons, and the author presents them as though the reader is visiting a day-seminar. (Lunch,  naturally, is taken with the Epicureans.)  Some schools of thought receive more attention than others; the Stoics, for instance, run across three chapters in the early morning, with Epictetus, Musonius Rufus, and Seneca all providing distinct skills.  Some of the lessons provide mental tricks, like using mottoes to remember principles.  Underlying many of the schools, however, is the principle of mindfulness.  A dark night of the soul brought Evans to Athens in the first place;  in a period of crisis, he was introduced to therapeutic techniques borrowed from Stoicism. Learning to be aware of his emotions, to realize he had the ability to step away from them, allowed Evans to climb out of a mental pit. He developed mental habits like auditing his thoughts and learned to stop dwelling on the negative. Our misery is often self-inflicted;  as Marcus Aurelius wrote, we are more troubled by our reactions about things than the things in themselves. Although Epicureanism has a much different basis than Stoicism, both work to effect a calm, contented mental state amid life's troubles. Stoicism is martial and trains the soul to be immune to the worse that may come, at its most intense calling for a person to retreat into a citadel of the mind. Epicureanism calls for a retreat, too, a kind of detachment from the cares of the world; but instead of being impervious to all care and stolidly devoted to the pursuit of virtue, the Epicurean seeks to focus on a few key ingredients:  community, self-reliance, and mindful simplicity.  The true Epicurean seeks to be the master of pleasure, by downshifting his expectations so as to manufacture a feast out of a little cup of cheese.  The pervasive theme throughout is mindfulness, even extending to the final chapter on dying well. Though moderns close our eyes to Charon, pushing off our arrival at his boat through medicine and miracle-working machines, death is inescapable. The boatman waits for us all; we must truly seize the day.

Philosophy for Life is an important book to consider, for the problems it sought to remedy are universal. Misfortune and unhappiness did not vanish simply because we are 'modern';  knowledge and technology have not conquered the human heart.  When we are inundated  with material wealth - literal lifetimes of entertainment at our fingertips, grocery stores and online markets offering goods to feed every taste and appetite -- we stand in danger of being overwhelmed and addicted, constantly chasing after new and increasingly intense hits, like a victim of drugs. Epicurus has the answer. Similarly, as our brain misfires trying to make sense of the world,  imposing purpose when there is none -- growing wrathful at a car that pulls out in front of us as if they meant to frustrate our travel -- the Stoa stands as a relief. Similarly, when the news is so utterly discouraging, constantly placing the worse of our behavior on display, it is helpful to follow Plutarch's example and deliberately consider the lives of the good and the heroic; to take inspiration from their example.

There are limits to Philosophy for Life, chiefly in its emphasis on the individual as the sole actor in achieving his happiness.  The Stoics believe that people were members of a community; not simply individual units within a collective, but members-- distinct, purposeful in relation to one another. The Epicureans, too, stressed the need for companionship.  These suggest that there is wisdom in traditions like Buddhism and Christianity which stress the need to die to the self, rather than ruled by it;  we live not just for ourselves.  This aside, however, the variety of thought, and the satisfying practicality of it all, recommend Evans to readers interested in living wisely.

Related:

• "Humanist Spirituality", an introduction to the basics of Cynicism, Skepticism, and Stoicism,  with the author (a Unitarian Univeralist minister) arguing that Stoicism has the most promise as a rational-yet- introspective path for an increasingly secular world.
• Plato's Podcasts: The Ancients' Guide to Modern Living, Mark Vernon.  Though not quite as serious, this was produced first and made numerous connections to various movments which have realized the same principles as the Stoics, Epicureans, etc.
• The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius; a modern translation is The Emperor's Handbook.
• The Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton.  
• Letters from a Stoic, Dialogues and Essays, Seneca;
• A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, William Irvine
• Discourses, Epictetus ; The Art of Joy, Sharon Lebell. (Modern interpretation of Epictetus.)
• American Mania, Peter Whybrow, on the psychology of consumerism and addiction

Tending the Epicurean Garden

Tending the Epicurean Garden
© 2014 Hiram Crespo
185 pages

Stoicism is not the only Greco-Roman school of practical philosophy experiencing a revival these days. Epicureanism, long reduced to a synonym for food-and-wine-snobs,  has found an audience within the increasingly secularized west,  among people who cannot countenance traditional religious claims, but do not wish to dismiss all of their accumulated wisdom. In Tending the Epicurean Garden, Hiram Crespo explains  that wisdom tradition that was Epicureanism, and offers ways it might be practiced today.

Epicureanism is a novelty among classical schools of philosophy in being largely materialistic; its four-sentence credo begins with the assertion that there is nothing to fear from the gods. They may exist, but they have nothing to do with us. They certainly do not watch over us and create punishments and pleasures for us after life. After life there is nothing, for in death we no longer exist; there is no 'us' to experience anything.  What good there is must be obtained in life -- and it can be found, and what evil exists can be endured. The Epicureans believed that atarexia, a kind of imperturbable happiness, was the only good in life, and that it could be achieved through mindfulness, the cultivation of genuine friendships, and self-reliance.

Tending the Garden mixes Greek philosophy, Zen Buddhism, and some generic self-help advice together in a mix that might spark some interest in its subject. Key to understanding and practicing Epicureanism is the practice of mindfulness; while Epicureans might be regarded today as hedonistic libertines,  prudence was their mainstay. Epicureanism bears a closer resemblance to simple living than it does to living it up.  Crespo doesn't delve into the aspect of moderating pleasure a great deal,  but the idea is to be content with little. It is the longing after things that makes us truly unhappy, and here Crespo makes frequent connections to Buddhism and its contention that desire is the root of suffering. Mindfulness is a superb practice, but what makes Tending interesting is the attention given to community life and autarky.   Driven into unemployment by the 2008 blowup,  Crespo advocates an ownership society in which capital is widely dispersed among private owners and cooperatives.  Although the Epicurean and Stoic approaches to mindfulness are quite similar, especially in the habit of mentally girding oneself for bad news,  the only reference Crespo makes to Stoicism is to dismiss it as a false philosophy, being too theistically based.

Tending the Garden is a enthusiastic introduction to Epicureanism, but problematic; Crespo doesn't seem grounded in the world of the Greeks; because he is chiefly concerned with reviving Epicureanism, he doesn't examine its  historical context. There is no survey of the lives of professed Epicureanisms, for example, except to mention distant personalities like Thomas Jefferson who admired it. This is certainly not the Epicurean answer to Stoicism's  A Guide to the Good Life, but it may inspire moderns to look into it. There are an awful lot of eclectic ideas under the Greek tunic, though.

The Consolations of Philosophy

The Consolations of Philosophy

© 2000 Alain de Botton

278 pages

A number of months ago, I stumbled by chance upon a fascinating television series called Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Host Alain de Botton addressed the everyday concerns of six famous philosophers in the show’s six episodes, demonstrating on video his and others’ attempts to take the advice of thinkers past to heart. I’ve mentioned here and other places innumerable times, so taken was I with the idea -- and when I found out that the shows were based on one of de Botton’s works, I knew I would someday read it.

Like the show that it spawned, The Consolations of Philosophy is divided into six sections focusing on the works of Socrates, Epicures, Seneca, Michel de Montaigne, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. The focus of the book chapters tends to be more broad than the television episodes on them, and present philosophy as a salve to eliminate our distress at being stressed, angry, unpopular, or heartbroken -- just for starters. De Botton integrates pictures directly into the text: while they sometimes serve as garnish for the text, more often than not they are directly used in the course of de Botton’s discussion. Consolations is Epictetus’ kind of philosophy: it’s street wisdom, to be employed anyone. Our author writes plainly and candidly, with the kind of self-revelation he finds so endearing in reading de Montaigne’s Essays.

The book's contents, in brief:

• Socrates' Consolation for Unpopularity, or his view of self-esteem, is that people should draw their self-image not from what others think about them or their opinions, but from the assurance that their beliefs and actions are guided by Reason. The section includes an explanation of the Socratic method, and it is this de Botton believes to be the basis for Socrates' grace in accepting his imposed death sentence.
• Epicurus' Consolation for Not Having Enough Money is realizing that happiness is the ends and money is not necessarily the means. He advocates a life filled with simple pleasures, and believes we buy things in a misguided attempt to find fulfillment. True fulfillment, Epicures says, lies in freedom, friends, and self-reflection. Epicures is a personality who comes to mind whenever I read about simple living, the slow movement, and anti-consumerism.
• Seneca's Consolation for Frustration is Stoicism, and de Botton focuses on Stoicism's treatment of anger as well as addressing questions of theodicy. de Botton places more emphasis on what we cannot control than what we can.
• Michel de Montaigne's Consolation for Inadequacy is twice as long as any of the other sections and is difficult to summarize, but it may suffice to say that Montaigne believes we humans live far too much in our heads: we are embarrassed by our "animal" functions of sex and defecation and arrogant about our opinions not because our opinions are great and truthful and our estimation of ourselves is deserving, but because we are deluding ourselves. Thoughtful humility seems to be in order.
• Similarly, Schopenhauer’s Consolation for a Broken Heart is that we’re animals, driven to procreate, and this business of falling in love is our genes’ way of screwing with us. It’s not our fault we fall in and out of love and find ourselves stuck in hopeless relationships: forces within our bodies impel us to seek out viable genetic mates, and they do not care if those mates are compatible with us in the long term.
• Nietzsche brings up the rear by offering a Consolation for Hardship: it’s the struggle up the mountain that leads to fulfillment. Life is hard, and we must persevere if we are to make anything of it.

Although de Botton’s emphasis is on the everyday applicability of these ideas, he does establish background as necessary to understand where these men are coming from. He doesn’t go into a system of thought like Stoicism in a great deal of detail, for instance --- but does so enough that we understand Seneca’s basis for saying what he says. This is the kind of thinking that Epictetus thought needed to be “rescued” from the high-tower academics and brought down to everyday life. I’ve found the television series and the book to be ever helpful. This is what philosophy, the love of wisdom, should be going for: making sense of life. I imagine this is one I shall return to for future reads, and it is of course a recommendation to you.

Related:

• The Art of Living, a modern interpretation of Epictetus.
• Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness, hosted by Alain de Botton, based on this book, and is presented in six episodes.
• Michel de Montaigne's Essays.