That modern cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is indebted to ancient Stoicism is rather well-known at this point. Albert Ellis, founder of rational-emotive behavioral therapy (REBT), the first cognitive psychotherapy, quotes the Stoic philosopher Epictetus prominently in his writing, particularly the famous line, “men are not disturbed by things, but by the views which they take…
In Plato’s Crito, Socrates sits in prison awaiting execution after having been sentenced to death on questionable charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. His friend Crito arrives at his cell and tries to convince him to escape, explaining that he and several others have already planned and paid for the arrangements. Socrates insists, however,…
“We’re all doing the best we can.” – Brene Brown, Rising Strong, 118 “No one who has knowledge or thought of other actions as better than those he is doing, and as possible, will do as he proposes if he is free to do the better ones.” – Socrates, Plato’s Protagoras, 358b–c Everyone is doing…
In this article, I want to discuss some parallels between Plato’s Socrates and Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff. First, I will look at the trial (or “trial”) of each, and second I will look at how each analyzes honor and the underlying psychology of those views, particularly the relation between honor and envy. Critics over the…
In this article I want to explore some common ground between the thinking of two ancient Greek philosophers, Plato and Epicurus, about the nature of pleasure and how it fits into the good life. Then, I will add a new coat of paint to some terminology hopefully to make these useful ideas feel a bit…
“But how lovely and how fitting the sound of the lively and impressive I of Socrates! It is the I of endless dialogue, and the air of dialogue is wafted around it in all its journeys.” — Martin Buber, I and Thou, 46 (Trans. Ronald Gregor Smith) Martin Buber was a 20th century Austrian-Israeli philosopher…