John Vespasian

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...

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 com...

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 harmo...

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 refer...

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 peop...

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, bu...

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...

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...

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 d...

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...

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...

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 natur...

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”...

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 d...

The justice definition given by Aristotle in “Nicomachean Ethics” is simple, but accurate and profound. A person behaves in accordance with justice only if he has “an habitual disposition to render to each person his due.” The definition demands giving consistently and regularly to each person his due, not only occasionally, not only from time to time. Aristotle’s predecessors such as Socrates (46...

In this article, I present one of Aristotle’s key contributions to philosophy. Aristotle’s theory of the four causes seems at first sight very easy to understand, but if you dig into the details, you will see its epochal consequences. It changed human mentality, and in doing so, it changed the course of history. The four causes, and in particular the final cause, can dramatically change your life...

In contrast to his predecessors, Aristotle (384-322 BC) built his theory of knowledge on empiricism. The main principle of empiricism is that knowledge can only be gained from sensory experience before it can be assessed and refined. Aristotle taught that humans start at birth with a blank mind (a blank slate) and will acquire knowledge through interactions with the external world. In his early pe...

Aristotle (384-322 BC) outlined his philosophy of education primarily in his works “Eudemian Ethics” and “Nicomachean Ethics.” His work “Politics” also contains some statements on education, as part of Aristotle’s views on governance and social organisation. The Aristotelian formula for education revolves around the concept of virtue: the purpose of education is to equip students with physical, mo...

When people nowadays speak about curiosity, they usually mean the open, random, wide-range interest in a multiplicity of subjects. They mean the curiosity of children exploring their environment in a disorderly, superficial, inconsistent manner. Renaissance authors such as Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) employed a different definition of curiosity. They carried out research in a multiplicity of s...

In his essays, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), addresses frequently the subject of cultural identity. I can summarise his conclusions in two sentences. First, he acknowledges that each culture has its own rituals, likes and dislikes. Second, he rates those differences as minor if compared with the traits shared by humans in all cultures. Montaigne underlines the second aspect in his essay titled...

Despite his erudition and hard work, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) never grasped the need for an objective morality. I find in his essays a relentless effort to obscure ethical truths in order to preach moral relativism and contorted ethical equality. Montaigne employed ethical fallacies as arguments once and again; he employed “universal emotions” to call for ethical indifference, and “diverse...

I can summarise in three sentences the political philosophy of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). He outlined his political ideas in several essays, giving many historical examples, but the ideas themselves are straightforward. First, when good people govern, everything will be fine, irrespective of the political system. Second, even the very best political system can be abused by bad people. Third,...

“The best human attribute is rising after every downfall,” wrote Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). Like no other author before the Renaissance, Montaigne devoted two decades of his life to identifying the keys to personal growth, and recording them in his essays. The above citation is taken from Montaigne’s essay “That no man should be called happy until his death,” which is one of my favourites. H...

“Let us allow fortune to do her thing, and she will then give us the chance to do ours,” wrote Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) in his essay “That no man should be called happy until his death.” Montaigne is not telling us that human life is shaped by luck and that we should be happy with our circumstances. Neither is he implying that we are all doomed to a short, miserable life in which countermea...

The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) about the nature of evil stands in sharp contrast to other thinkers. For Schopenhauer, evil is a natural phenomenon. It’s the inevitable outcome of the will (“life force”) when left to operate freely. Schopenhauer attributes evil to the life force that prompts all living creatures to secure their survival and reproduction, seek pleasure and maximis...