Simple advice on how to get out of an unhealthy relationship — Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor. I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse. — Ovid How do you get out of a toxic relationship? Well, if we were smart, we’d ask some people who have already done it. If you do this, you’ll tend to find…

What the Stoic philosopher actually said about the notorious Roman emperor — Epictetus, the great teacher, played his part in changing the leadership of Rome from the swill he had known in the Nero White House to the power and decency it knew under Marcus Aurelius. — Stockdale, Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot The Emperor Nero was, it’s fair to say…

Join us for the Plato’s Academy Centre virtual event — The Plato’s Academy Centre’s March 11th virtual conference on how to save rational discourse is completely free of charge. Not available? Don’t worry because if you register now you’ll be able to watch videos of all the presentations later, at your leisure. So don’t miss out! Extreme partisanship dominates. You…

Take a look at the new movie about the life of the Stoic philosopher — Is this the Seneca you expected to see on the big screen, or not? The trailer below has just been released for director Robert Schwentke’s long-awaited movie Seneca: On the Creation of Earthquakes (IMDB). I think John Malkovich is a good choice to play the Stoic philosopher. From what I…

How can we save civility and rational discourse? — The forthcoming virtual conference from the Plato’s Academy Centre is about how Stoicism can help all of us to deal with one of the most frustrating aspects of modern politics by replacing partisan bickering, trolling, etc., with rational and civil discourse. …

We’re excited to announce our new Stoicism — Philosophy as a Way of Life Podcast on Substack has already been downloaded by nearly 20k listeners. You’re invited to listen free of charge. You can listen to the podcast free of charge. …

The ancient two-column technique demonstrated by Socrates — Most people have heard of the “Socratic Method”, or “Socratic Questioning”, although few realize how that method was originally used by ancient philosophers. …

Reading Greek Philosophy as Psychotherapy — I’m currently researching the philosophy of the Presocratic philosopher Anaxagoras for a book I’m writing about Socrates. I’m very interested in the therapeutic dimension of Greek philosophy, particularly Stoicism. So I’ve been wondering if Anaxagoras’ philosophy can potentially be read from that perspective. I’m not suggesting that Anaxagoras was a…

How Socrates creeps into the hit Netflix series — There’s an obvious, albeit slightly mangled, reference to one of the famous Socratic paradoxes in episode six (“Quid Pro Woe”) of the Netflix series, Wednesday. Ms Thornhill, the botany teacher and “dorm mom”, played by Christina Ricci, offers Wednesday Addams a beautiful hardback copy of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein or…