Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Stoic", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver the se...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Epicurean", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver th...

This lecture discusses Plato's work, The Euthyphro. In that work, Socrates is headed to the court, facing trial on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. He gets into a discussion with Euthyphro about the nature of piety and related matters. Here, we look at some of the features of the dramatic situation setting up the dialogue outside of the law court, where Socrates is about to defend hims...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on how we ought to deal with our own failings, mistakes, errors, and sins (hamartia), something that we will experience fairly frequently. He maintains that we ought to look at ourselves like those who are suffering from...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on emotional responses that he takes as being important signs of progress towards virtue, if these emotional responses are directed towards the right objects. These are "emulation" (zēlos) and admiration (thaumazein), di...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of the emotions that a person feels, which they can use as an index for determining whether they are indeed making progress. Plutarch suggests that we ought to look at our past emotional responses and c...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his short but rich discussion about how we can tell whether or not we are making progress by looking at the contents of our dreams (or at what we perceive when we are ill). If we have not genuinely succeeded in making...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of a yearning for philosophy, not typical academic philosophy but actual philosophy as a way of life, as an index for whether a person is making moral progress or not. He examines what this looks like i...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussions bearing upon something he takes as an important index for our development, namely the changes in our discourse. He looks a number of different aspects of this, one of which is the topics that we focus...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of why it is important not to give ourselves a pass or make excuses when we fail in minor ways, if the goal is to make moral progress. He develops an analogy to building projects. If the goal is to buil...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on how we can use consistency as a sign and also a means of making moral progress. He argues that we are either making progress or falling back, so this means that we need to keep choosing to commit to a life of virtue,...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his criticisms of the standard Stoic position on virtue and vice, which is that every person is either virtuous or vicious, with no middle state. The Stoics (with some exceptions like Epictetus) also seem to think tha...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the fourth type of idol, those of the theater, which derive from either entire philosophical systems, which Bacon likens to fictions and plays, or from perverted...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the third type of idol, those of the market, which derive from our use of language to communicate our thoughts and to engage in inquiry. Bacon examines what disti...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the second type of idol, those of the cave or den, which have to do with human individuals. Bacon examines what distinctive sorts of errors of these types we can...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the first type of idol, those of the tribe, which have to do with our shared human nature, as members of the same human race. Bacon examines what distinctive sort...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on the topic of whether it is good or bad for us to compare ourselves and our lives with other people, particularly with those who are superior to us in some ways. He suggests that if we do need to compare ourselves to others, we be very re...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on an important component of having a tranquil life, which is dealing with the emotional states that other people have, display, talk about, and act upon. We will do well not to be too concerned with other people's negative emotions, like e...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of one mistake that many people make that gets in the way of their enjoying their lives, namely desiring or attempting to do every kind of activity they consider important or valuable in their one life. Many activities are...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on our relation to time and the times of past, present, and future. Foolish people don't appreciate the present, because they focus too much on the future that may never come about. They also don't make good use of their memory of the past...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on his advice that we ought to direct our focus to what is actually good in our lives, and respond to those things with a sense of joy and appreciation (kharis). If we look at our lives, we actually have a number of good things either in th...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on the importance of recognizing that life will be a mix of good and bad things, rather than primarily good things, as some people unrealistically desire, hope, or expect it to be. He advocates for harmonizing the two together into an overa...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on his examination of how we make use of or deal with (khēsthai, in Greek) things or matters (pragmata) abd the circumstances we find ourselves in. He uses an analogy which he says derives from Plato (which perhaps goes back to Socrates) of...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Tranquility This episode focuses specifically on a mistake that a number of people make in thinking about what will produce happiness, tranquility, or contentment for them, namely living a certain lifestyle or having a particular occupation. If one does not have one's mindset, assumpti...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Being A Busybody This episode focuses specifically on he importance of developing self-control (enkrateia) in order to curb excessive and harmful curiosity. We do this in general through habituation, training, and to some degree learning or study. He also provides in-depth discussion o...