Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (Video Series!)

[Ian Smith]

Hi guys (and girls),

I found this excellent video series by a British philosopher Alain de Botton. This 6-part series features 6 great thinkers who have influenced history, each episode will focus on their thoughts regarding happiness in life. Each video is 24 minutes long and gives a general idea into a different philosophers theories on happiness. I found them all very interesting, and nice to watch since I have more than enough reading material already.

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Episode 1: Socrates on Self-Confidence - Why do so many people go along with the crowd and to stand up for what they truly believe? Partly because they are too easily swayed by other people's opinions and partly because they don't know when to have confidence in their own.

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=45280

Episode 2: Epicurus on Happiness - British philosopher Alain De Botton discusses the personal implications of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270BCE) who was no epicurean glutton or wanton consumerist,but an advocate of friends, freedom and thought as the path to happiness.

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=45281

Episode 3: Seneca on Anger - Roman philosopher Lucious Annaeus Seneca (4BCE-65CE), the famous and popular philosopher of his day, took the subject of anger seriously enough to dedicate a whole book to the subject. Seneca refused to see anger as an irrational outburst over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical problem and amenable to treatment by philosophical argument. He thought anger arose from certain rationally held ideas about the world, and the problem with these ideas is that they are far too optimistic. Certain things are a predictable feature of life, and to get angry about them is to have unrealistic expectations.

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=45282

Episode 4: Montaigne on Self-Esteem looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself - sexual inadequacy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority - and then offered practical solutions for overcoming them.

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=45283

Episode 5: Schopenhauer on Love - Alain De Botton surveys the 19th Century German thinker Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who believed that love was the most important thing in life because of its powerful impulse towards \'the will-to-life\'

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=45284

Episode 6: Nietzsche on Hardship - British philosopher Alain De Botton explores Friedrich Nietzsche's (1844-1900) dictum that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the experience of overcoming hardship. For him, any existence that is too comfortable is worthless, as are the twin refugees of drink or religion.

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=45286





ENJOY AND DISCUSS!