A Guide to Happiness: “Socrates on Self-Confidence”

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:

01 - Socrates on Self-Confidence

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 101 is “Socrates on Self-Confidence.” What did Socrates (470-399 BC) mean by “searching for the truth,” “self-knowledge,” and his dialectic method, and how does Alain de Botton extrapolate these concepts into our lives in the 21st Century?