John Vespasian

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) deployed large efforts to study Christianity and Eastern religions. His goal was to draw the best ethical advice from religion. When I say “best advice,” I mean practical, tangible, hands-on advice. I find it remarkable that Schopenhauer devoted long years to studying religion. His theory of the will (“life force”) has no direct connection to religion and his ethics...

For Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), creativity is the key element in genius. However, Schopenhauer defined creativity in an unusual way. He wasn’t referring to the ability to create new concepts by recombining existing ones. No, he was referring to the rare ability to come up with breakthrough, surprising ideas. His theory of the will (life force) doesn’t attribute creativity to nature. Schopenha...

The problem of evil was addressed by Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) by referring to the theory of the will (“life force”), which constitutes the pillar of his philosophy. Schopenhauer defined the will as the force driving living creatures to secure their survival and reproduction, and seek pleasure. According to Schopenhauer, the will creates endless human desires. As soon as one desire is fulfil...

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) devoted his whole life to intellectual pursuits. In particular, he gave extensive thought to their contribution to happiness. Schopenhauer outlined his philosophy in “The world as will and representation,” a book he published in 1818. The essential insight of the book is that the will (“life force”) is driving all living creatures to secure their own survival and re...

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) never wrote any novels and deeply disliked those written by his mother, Johanna. She had attained notoriety by her romantic novels and reciprocated his son’s literary dislike by calling his essays uninteresting. However, the novels written by Johanna Schopenhauer were quickly forgotten, while Arthur Schopenhauer’s works attracted growing interest. Eventually, his id...

It is a myth that Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) had an extraordinary interest in literary exploration. Although he used many literary quotations, those are drawn from a couple of dozen books. Montaigne reread those books frequently, but rarely added new ones to his library. His literary explorations serve just one purpose, namely, to provide materials for his research in ethics. The latter const...

Despite his practice of recounting anecdotes about himself, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) failed to learn much from introspection. In fact, he often misunderstood his own motives or drew the wrong lessons. I attribute Montaigne’s constant references to introspection to self-aggrandisement, not to philosophical wisdom. He spent twenty years writing his essays, and many of those, include an anecdo...

Personal reflections can render essays colourful and lively, but cannot guarantee correct judgement. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) made dozens of personal reflections in his essays, but more often than not, he drew trivial or wrong conclusions. Nonetheless, his essays remain worth reading because they prompt us to think. They confront us with numerous arguments favouring or opposing a thesis, or...

The insertion of personal reflections is the most innovative aspect in the essays of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). The previous centuries had relegated personal reflections to poetry. Montaigne is the first author who gave his personal views on a wide range of subjects, placing his reflections on equal level to quotations from Plato, Aristotle, or Cicero. Since Montaigne did not possess experti...

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is still widely read today because of one reason. He wrote essays on the nature of human experience and drew conclusions of permanent value. He used numerous examples from ancient Greece and Rome, and those remain fresh and fascinating for today’s readers. What is Montaigne’s main conclusion after devoting twenty years of his life to writing essays? Did he endorse t...

Aristotle addressed friendship in his “Nicomachean Ethics.” He viewed friendship as indispensable for leading a happy life, but identified three types of friendships: those based on utility, those based on pleasure, and those based on shared values or virtues. The latter is by far the most valuable. Friendships of utility are based on mutual interest. People collaborate with each other for a myria...

Aristotle (384-322 BC) made four decisive contributions to philosophy. First, in metaphysics, he refuted Plato’s theory of forms. While Plato had believed in a world of pure abstractions (which he called “forms”), Aristotle emphasised observing the material world. Second, Aristotle came up with the concepts of substance and form. He asserted that each item is composed of substance and form. Substa...

The philosophy of logic and reason developed by Aristotle (384-322 BC) is different from computer logic, religious logic, and other types of logic that have existed in history. There are three distinct features that render Aristotelian logic unique. I’m going to present those three features, one by one. First, Aristotelian logic is linked to language. I would go even further and specify that it is...

Aristotle (384-322 BC) outlined his thoughts on tragedy in his work “Poetics.” He regarded tragedy as an art form evoking pity and fear, leading the audience to gain emotional resilience and wisdom. The process of gaining resilience and wisdom from tragedy watched on stage is called “catharsis.” The key plot element in a tragedy is that the hero (who is essentially virtuous) ends up destroying his...

In history, only a handful of philosophers have endorsed the views on knowledge and learning developed by Aristotle (384-322 BC). The opposition to Aristotle’s empiricism began before his birth, that is, with his predecessors, in particular Socrates and Plato. Let us take a look at how their views differ from those of Aristotle. Socrates (469-399 BC) never wrote any books, but his ideas have been...

After the disastrous distortions introduced in late Antiquity, it took twenty-three centuries to put into practice the views that Aristotle (384-322 BC) had developed on education. The reason for the long interval is not that Aristotle’s ideas on education are difficult to grasp. In fact, it only takes a few hours of study to understand Aristotelian ethics, which regards happiness as the goal of h...

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) built himself a morality framework by writing essays for two decades. His philosophy resembles a house built little by little, using various techniques and materials, and then painted over several times in different colours. On the one hand, Montaigne embraced scepticism, showing very little confidence in the human ability to establish absolute truths. He studied hi...

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is regarded as the first existentialist philosopher in history because he accepted the inevitability of death, and sought to maximise his happiness in every situation. Instead of fearing death, Montaigne recommended getting acquainted with it, so that it becomes part of our expectations. The consciousness of our limited lifespan can help us make the best of every da...

For historians of philosophy, there is a definite proof that Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) was a forerunner of modern existentialism; they point to Montaigne’s essay titled “To study philosophy is to learn to die” and argue that it contains all key ideas of existentialist philosophy. I cannot deny Montaigne’s position as a precursor of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Albert Camus (1913-1960), b...

I view Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) as the first thinker who realized that scepticism can save one’s life. His insight is still true today, and will remain true for as long as people keep using deceit and misrepresentation to further their interests. Unfortunately, Montaigne’s defence of scepticism is rather messy. In some essays, he rightly refuses to believe other people’s statements when the...

When historians refer to scepticism in the works by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), they point to his general reluctance to accept absolute truths. Taken to extremes, scepticism weakens the confidence in one’s perceptions and ability to reason. Since Montaigne wrote essays during a twenty-year period, his own definition of scepticism shifted from general doubts, to self-doubt, to doubts about soc...

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) built his philosophy step by step, starting with a central concept (the theory of the will), and adding layers of explanations. His physics, epistemology, logic and morality revolve around the theory of the will, and so do his views on the meaning of life. According to Schopenhauer, the will (“life force”) drives all living creatures to secure their survival and rep...

The key concepts in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) connect it to Ancient Stoicism and existentialism. Let us pass review to those concepts, which Schopenhauer first outlined in “The world as will and representation,” a book that he published in 1818. Schopenhauer built his philosophy around the theory of the will (“life force”). He viewed the will as the driver of all living cre...

The twentieth century has generated three serious initiatives to revive the educational philosophy put forward by Aristotle (384-322 BC), or similar to his. In essence, revival initiatives aim at prioritising the student’s individual development. Let’s review these three attempts and see the extent to which they have remained loyal to Aristotelian education. Let’s assess if they have grasped the p...

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) rejected the unshakeable optimism of his contemporaries about the power of reason. He acknowledged that all individuals are potentially able to think, but pointed out that few people make the effort to assess facts accurately and draw logical conclusions. His book “On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason” (1814) defends the thesis that events can...