eros's blog

Deciding what to do for a living or what career we wish to embark in life, is not an easy task. The decision can be challenging if we feel limited in our abilities or qualifications. Also difficult is when the job market doesn't look too promising. But, the toughest decision is when we feel conflicted in choosing between a job that gratify our aspirations for a social status or our wish for the highest salary attainable against the wish for passionate interests .

Schopenhauer on Love - Alain De Botton surveys the 19th Century German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who believed that love was the most important thing in life because of its powerful impulse towards 'the will-to-life'.

Montaigne on Self-Esteem looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself - sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority - and then offered practical solutions for overcoming them.

Seneca refused to see anger as something over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical problem amenable to treatment.