“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
This weekend I’ve spent a couple of hours watching “Philosophy – Guide to happiness” series on youtube with my girlfriend. Most of them were quite interesting, so I decided why not to share a few on my blog?
We often think of philosophy as something too vague, up in the clouds and too far from reality. Creators of videos below tried to fix it by grasping the essence of the famous philosophers’ ideas, drawing the parallel with their own destinies and projecting them to our daily life.
Yes, sometimes it means simplifying or even over-simplifiyng. And sometimes conclusions sound a little too banal, obvious and seemingly well-known. But still there are interesting insights and learnings to be applied in real life.
I don’t know for sure if watching these videos and attempt to apply the ideas from them will make you a happier person, but it is certainly worth watching and trying. What is surprising is that how little the world changed during last couple of thousand years and how these teachings are still vital nowadays.
I embedded the videos, so you won’t have to google them. There are 6 philosophers discussed, 3 videos for each one.
1. Socrates on self-confidence and ability to think independently:
2. Epicurus on necessary (and what’s more important unnecessary!) ingredients of happiness:
3. Seneca on anger and the importance of the realistic pessimism vs. blind optimism:
4. Montaigne on the importance of acceptance of ourselves and our limitations:
5. Nietzsche on the hardships of life and the right attitude towards them:
6. Schopenhauer on the role of genetics & biology in love:
BTW, if you still doubt the importance of so-called “philosophical” view of life, there is another documentary I watched last Friday and would also like to recommend: “Stress – Portrait of a killer”. It’s a National Geographic film about role of stress in our lives, about its connection with social ranks, its health implications (they are huge!) and ways to lower it. It’s very closely connected with the 3rd video about anger. You can either watch a 5 minutes teaser or download the full-version of film.
I would be happy if share your thoughts on the subject!
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