Daryl Hale

I listened to this short audiobook which covers the highlights of the two philosophies of the ancient world, with both Greek and Roman adherents to get a feeling of the differences between the two and from the more familiar Skeptic philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It was useful as a thumbnail description of the most important teachers in each and how their influences were felt. It wasn't a primer on the philosophies themselves, except for a simplified depiction of Epicureanism as prizing happiness over all other things (especially the absence of suffering), and Stoicism as emphasizing individual virtue as what one should strive to attain. It was interesting to see how they took the subjective experience of the individual in these different directions and how popular they were over hundreds of years. This balances out the coverage in the one other book I reviewed on Stoicism in a basic way. It would be good for a person who might have heard of epicureanism or stoicism in a modern context and wants to know more about whether they might be appealing philosophies to investigate. The narration and the quotes from ancient philosophers were pretty clear and appealing, though not very thorough.… (plus d'informations)