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From the Publisher
How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero
Language is a slave of desire and source of confusion, which is why the Buddha often kept silent. But had the Buddha never spoken, or at least written, we would not have known of his beautiful and powerful ideas.
Knowledge, as they say, is power. But words are how we use, or exploit, or share, that power. The greatest knowledge is the knowledge of knowledge, without which we would have nothing worth saying. But the second greatest knowledge is the knowledge of words, without which we would not be able to say it.
In Plato’s Philebus, the sophist Protarchus tells Socrates:
I have often heard Gorgias [a famous sophist] maintain that the art of persuasion far surpassed every other; this, as he says, is by far the best of them all, for to it all things submit, not by compulsion, but of their own free will.
In 1897, at the age of 22, Winston Churchill wrote:
Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world. Abandoned by his party, betrayed by his friends, stripped of his offices, whoever can command this power is still formidable.
During the Second World War, the Free World’s most powerful weapon was not the atomic bomb, but Churchill’s rhetoric—while, by some accounts, it was through the mouth that his defeated foe shot himself.
What a waste that so many who can think cannot speak, and so many who can speak cannot think, when, really, these two things ought to go hand in hand—or side by side, as they do in this book.
There is much more to mental health than the mere absence of mental disorder. Today, I write about all the things that I was never taught.
The new Ancient Wisdom series
The best, most beautiful, and most powerful ideas of the Classical World.
- The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiatrist
- The Gang of Three: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
- Stoic Stories: Stoicism by Its Best Stories
- Indian Mythology and Philosophy
- Augustus: Invitation to Philosophy
- How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero
Neel Burton
Multi award-winning author
Dr Neel Burton FRSA is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the winner of the Society of Authors' Richard Asher Prize, the British Medical Association's Young Authors' Award, and the Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Award. His work regularly features in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today and has been translated into several languages.
His books include:
- The Meaning of Madness: A Critical Guide to Mental Health and Illness
- Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception
- Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions
- For Better For Worse: Essays on Love, Marriage, and More
- Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking
- The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide
- The Secret to Everything: How to Live More and Suffer Less
- Growing from Depression: A Practical and Philosophical Self-Help Guide
The Ancient Wisdom series
The best, most beautiful, and most powerful ideas of the Classical World.
The first three books in the Ancient Wisdom series survey a thousand years of Western intellectual history, from the rise of the Greek city states to the peak height of the Roman Empire. This uniquely fertile period, which encompasses the Golden Age of Athens, began in mystical, mythological thought, and culminated in the hyper-rational, hyper-practical philosophy of the Stoics.
The incipient Christian religion absorbed and adapted, and for a long time occulted, many ancient doctrines, which is why, despite their remoteness, they can seem so strangely familiar. In the late Middle Ages, the rediscovery of Plato fuelled the humanistic Renaissance, which pushed back against the Church.
The Renaissance was a time of great hope and optimism, which, in many ways, proved premature. Faith provides a compelling reason to live, and a compelling reason to be good, which, for better or worse, many people have lost. For all our progress in science, technology, and education, more than one in five adults are now suffering from some form of depression. It’s almost as if we’ve come full circle, minus the philosophy.
Might it then be time to look afresh at these ancient ideas and find in them a happier way of living? Might it be time, in other words, for a new Renaissance?
The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiat...
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The Gang of Three: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (Ancient Wisdom)
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Stoic Stories: Stoicism by Its Best Stories (Ancient Wisdom)
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Indian Mythology and Philosophy: The Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Kama S...
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Augustus: Invitation to Philosophy (Ancient Wisdom)
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How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero (Ancient Wisdom)
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| Price | $14.99 | $18.99 | $14.99 | $16.99 | $9.99 | $16.99 |
| Number of pages | 206 | 390 | 228 | 266 | 88 | 238 |
| Format | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback |
| Other formats | Hardback, ebook | Hardback, ebook | Hardback, ebook | Hardback, ebook | Hardback, ebook | Hardback, ebook |
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