Brian Johnson breaks down Donald Robertson's book on Socratic thinking, contrasting sophists (ancient and modern influencers who pander) with philosophers who pursue virtue. The Hercules story shows the choice between vice and arete, the highest human excellence.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. A couple plus ones ago I mentioned the fact that Donald Robertson joined us in Athens. It was awesome. In addition to hanging out with us touring Athens for the first three days we were in town, he gave a couple impromptu talks on the Acropolis and a more formal talk on the grounds of Plato's ancient academy. During that talk he read from the introduction to his new book how to Think Like Socrates. That was especially awesome today and over the next several days I want to explore some of the wisdom from his new book. Before we jump in, if you haven't checked out the notes on his previous book how to Think Like a Roman Emperor, get on that. Donald and I chatted about the new gladiator movie and he was hoping they'd mention wisdom from the great emperor philosopher Marcus Aurelius. And as his presence in the first movie did wonders for the Stoic brand. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm told Aurelius and his wisdom is referenced a number of times. Now let's get to work. I want to chat about one of my favorite ideas from the book, a distinction between sophists and philosophers. Donald tells us, and I quote, before we can even begin to help ourselves, we need moreover to figure out what our goal is. Self help is no help unless we know what it is we're trying to achieve. First we need to learn how to focus on the bigger picture and as Socrates insisted, ask ourselves some difficult questions concerning our values. For instance, should our self improvement be measured in terms of achieving external goals such as wealth or reputation or inner ones such as wisdom and self mastery? What really constitutes human flourishing or a good life? He continues by saying the Internet is awash with self help advice. Young people in particular drink from a veritable fire hose of opinions about how they should be living. The youth of Athens faced essentially the same problem. Their influencers were called the sophists, self proclaimed experts or wise men. Ancient Athenians attended speeches given by sophists who claimed to improve their students. Just as today we consume videos by those who profess to be self improvement experts, the sophists charged hefty fees for teaching young Athenians how to become more persuasive speakers with promises that they would thereby achieve success in public life. Andy tells us modern influencers often profess to teach us how to succeed in our careers and relationships. Nevertheless, despite being separated by over 2000 years, certain ancient sophists and modern day influencers can at times sound uncannily alike. That's because they're often telling their audiences what they want to hear or what they know will capture their attention, something Socrates described as pandering. They compete with their peers for praise, ancient sofas for applause, social media influencers for likes. That inevitably leads them to appeal to our existing prejudices rather than challenge them. But what if this very relationship does us more harm than good? Sophists versus Philosophers I find the distinction and the connection to modern day social media influencers absolutely fascinating. So much so that at the end of his talk on the ancient grounds of Plato's Academy, I asked Donald to talk a bit more about the distinction. Now, after marking up the couple pages in the book in which Donald shares this wisdom, pages eight and nine for the record, at the bottom of the pages I wrote ultimate 2,500-year-old challenge seduced fame, wealth, hotness, Hercules, vice versus virtue and spa versus hospital let's quickly unpack what I was thinking. First, we need to remember the fact that having the wisdom to know the ultimate game we're playing and how to play it well is a 2,500-year-old challenge. We've had influencers pandering to our craving for fame, wealth and hotness for a very long time. Remember the choice of Hercules? I got that story from Donald in How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. He shares the story Socrates and the ancient Stoics used to tell about young Hercules before he was Hercules. As we've discussed, it goes like Young Hercules is walking in a forest by himself. Two goddesses approach him. One rushes in front of the other. She's overly made up and preening. You can almost see her getting ready to snap a selfie and post it on Instagram to get some more likes as a modern day influencer. She tells him that her name is Happiness. But she's lying. Her name is Vice. She tells him that if he follows her, his life will be filled with everything he wants with zero effort. She's lying again. Now the second goddess waits patiently. Then she steps forward. She has an austere but beautiful presence. She tells Hercules that the other goddess is lying. She tells him that if he follows her, she will promise him a life of hardship and challenge. But in the process of forging the strength to overcome these challenges in service to something bigger than himself, he will earn the respect of the gods. Her name? Arete. A sophist and a philosopher. Which one are you paying attention to? Choose wisely today.
What's up? This is Michael, president and head coach at Heroic. One quick note before we go I just think it's so amazing that Brian keeps reading all these books and distilling them into more wisdom and less time. By the way, thank you Brian for continuing to read the books distill them for us. I love not having to read the book, just getting them more wisdom in less time to the plus ones of Philosopher's Notes and if you're into this kind of thing, expressing the best version of yourself and using your greatest gifts make a positive impact on the world. Make sure you head to Heroic Us to check out all the other resources that we have available to you. You can download a bunch of free goodies including Philosopher's Notes, Masterclasses and our scientifically proven Heroic app. You can also explore advanced resources to help you go next level, including live and virtual workshops, working one on one with a Heroic Performance coach, or even becoming a certified coach yourself as you master heroic performance, the fundamentals of Coaching Excellence and Heroic Coaching prosperity. Again, head to Heroic Us to get the ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools you need to activate your heroic potential and change the world together. And please do hit subscribe, appreciate you have a fantastic day and see you again soon.
