Wednesday, June 18, 2008

A Guide to Happiness: "Schopenhauer on Love"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

105 - "Schopenhauer on Love"

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 105 is "Schopenhauer on Love." 19th Century Arthur Schopenhauer believed that love is the most important human striving because of its powerful impulse toward "the will to life." What light does Alain de Botton shed on the irony of an unhappy philosopher probing the subject of love?


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