The Thinker contemplates life's pertinent questions

Let me now introduce you to the first of six posts featuring a series of documentaries written and presented by popular British philosopher Alain de Botton.

This 6 part series is an entertaining, practical and psychobabble-free self-help course for the philosophically minded.

Here, de Botton, brings us six thinkers who have influenced history, and their ideas about the pursuit of the happy life.  Here we have then:

• Socrates
• Epicurus
• Seneca
• Michel de Montaigne
• Arthur Schopenhauer
• Friedrich Nietzsche

Read more…

Can one be happy and anxiety free in a world filled with nothing but social pressures, stress and troubles?  Well Swiss writer, Alain de Botton thinks we can, with some practical wisdom in the following talk as he discusses the pressures and anxieties within the workplace as well as in our lives in general.

To be honest with you, I’d much rather stay home and become a full-time Football Coach to baby J who is becoming ever more ambitious by the day – but alas, I got to pay the bills!

Alain does a good job in giving me some much needed consolation through the use of philosophy despite me needing to work within a environment with human beings hell bent on backstabbing and ass kissing just to get to the top.  Enjoy and learn from Mr. de Botton…

“Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.”

~ TedTalks