Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533–1592
40:58 / 148 words
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Beginning in August of 1999, I gave a series of eight lectures on “The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophies East and West,” dealing with different conceptions of the good life. The syllabus was:
- Introduction
- Harmony, Inner and Outer (Plato, Lao Tzu)
- Self-Actualization (Montaigne, Nietzsche)
- Detachment (Epictetus, the Buddha)
- Duty (Confucius, Kant, Montaigne)
- Pleasure (Callicles, Epicurus)
- The Conquest of Nature (Ayn Rand)
- The Spiritual Life (William James)
I have tapes of all eight lectures, and the sound quality so far seems pretty good. I will put them online in 16 parts. As usual, the students’ questions were often not caught by the microphone, so they were edited out. But my answers make clear what the questions were.
2 Comments
Well, you have done it again. Have I told you how much I like these philosophical lectures.? Whoever does the transcripts, I also thank. With me, regret usually is a hard lesson which says I am not going to do that again. It seems to me I learned a lot of that in Grade one with totally stupid teachers. I noticed my sons figured that out after grade one too. Must run in the family. It is a life lesson. I don’t know how many people I have said ‘why don’t you just forgive yourself?’ They seem to like self-abuse. Okay. Thanks for this.
Thank you for these Greg. They are wonderful.