Read a book called " The Consulation of Philosophy" by Alain de Botton.
Essay Questions on The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
Please select one of the six essay questions:
1. The modem philosopher, Alain de Botton, employs philosophy as a meditative tool in exploring what it means to live a proper life. One of many applications that philosophy serves, for de Botton, is an instructive guide in finding consolation when life throws at us its hardships and difficulties. Consolation for Unpopularity, asks of us to examine life thoroughly, through the diligent method in which Socrates lived his life relying on logical and rational discourse. For the Hellenic thinker, applying logic and rationality was a consoling aid in upholding his own unpopular principle, even when he knew he would be castigated by the populace. Please carefully consider and reformulate the main points and ideas that de Botton is drawing, and provide a moment in US cultural and social history that reflects these ideas, or an experience in your personal life that is anecdotal evidence to de Botton's argument.
2. Consolation for Not Having Enough Money, we are challenged to question how much is too much, and to delineate things in our lives between those we need from those we want. For the modem philosopher, Epicurus was an illuminating example of someone who rationally investigated what actually necessitates happiness in our lives, by discriminating needs from desires. As de Botton contends philosophy should be applicable to our daily lives, please carefully mull over and readdress the ideas, and re-examine your own lives by implementing the epicurean tripartite division and method, and narrate how you could live a more contentful life, proposed by Epicurus.
3. One of the over-arching themes of The Consolations of Philosophy is to demonstrate that philosophy is not merely abstract thoughts and high-minded theory, but rather a discipline that can be pragmatically applied in the real world. "Consolation" in the title stresses the sentiment that life is difficult, but we can mitigate life's suffering by exercising these theoretical ideas into everyday practice, ultimately knowing we can never fully extinguish the agency that creates our pain. In responding to this notion, de Botton, then, invokes Seneca, a follower of Stoicism, as an example who wisely learned to accept life's unjust difficulties and misfortune, in order to come to terms with external circumstances that he had little or no control over. In the mode of a research essay, please investigate and elaborate in some depth the history and the ideas of Stoicism.
4. The essays of Michel Montaigne, who philosophically prescribed how we could overcome the disparate inadequacies which may arise due to our misconceptions of other people and social conventions. From insecurities about the body, to the intellect and being worldly-minded, Montaigne sets out certain concepts to improve ourselves by rationally surmounting these debilitating insecurities. One special scourge he found to be particularly harmful was cultural ignorance. It must be noted that Montaigne travelled much for his time, imparting the value of engaging foreign cultures and peoples, whilst humbly maintaining an open-mind. Please readdress in detail Montaigne's explanation about the behind the workings of cultural ignorance, and provide an illuminating story of a journey you may have taken that parallels Mongtaigne's philosophy.
5. As noted by de Botton, the subject of love, as a topic of deep philosophic investigation, was thought to be frivolous and juvenile; hence most philosophers felt best to relegate it to the world of poets, novelists and musicians. Yet, Schopenhauer against convention valiantly pursued the question why humans fall in love. Moreover, he logically explained how we could console ourselves when left rejected and forlorn by a potential partner. Please explain in detail Schopenhauer's inquiry into the reason behind human love and why love is an imperfect emotion. Then find a piece of poetry or lyric from a catalogue of musical genres and interpretively connect it with some of the important ideas of Schopenhauer's concept of love.
6. The tail-end of de Botton's book examines the major theme of The Consolations of Philosophy: human pain. In attempting to understand the nature of human pain, and why toil and suffering are inescapable in our lives, de Botton evokes Friedrich Nietzsche. For the German philosopher, human suffering plays an important role in our lives, oddly, at times, working beneficially for our improvement. Please write a research essay on Nietzsche's life and explain in detail Nietzsche's reasoning on why we should take some comfort in acknowledging the importance of facing difficulties in our lives.