Shelfology Book Pairing

The Stoic Classic

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Make each of your days meaningful using Seneca's immortal guidance In On the Shortness of Life: The Stoic Classic, Tom Butler-Bowdon introduces the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, an ancient Roman philosopher who wrote on the fleeting nature of existence and the need to live in a way that is worthy of the short time we have on this planet. In the book, you'll learn how to go beyond busyness and shallow pursuits and fill your days with purpose. The happy life is the virtuous life. Seneca explains how to: Spend time in reflection and truly honour yourself and your value. Fulfil your duties to family and society yet remain mentally independent. Separate what matters from what merely pleases the ego. Perfect for anyone seeking meaning and purpose in their daily lives, On the Shortness of Life is an extraordinary reminder of the transient nature of life that shows you how to make each moment count.

Plato

by Plato

Plato's Republic has long defied classification: it is a philosophical masterpiece; it is acute political theory; it is great literature. Although certain inconsistencies have been subsequently discovered, philosophical and otherwise, there can be no doubt that The Republic is a work of genius. It has as its central problem the nature of justice. In a word, what is justice? From this common origin, however, the book divides at a broader level. There is first of all the mundane, represented in the first books by the refutation of proverbial morality and traditional society. But the middle books belong almost exclusively to pure philosophy. In these Plato examines the figure of the philosopher, metaphysics, and epistemology, an extended investigation that culminates in the allegory of the vision, visibility, and the sun as symbol of the good, or justice. It not until the delineation of the famous "Myth of the Cave" in Book VII, however, that the two realms: material and ideal, polity and philosophy, historical State and ideal State, virtue and ethics truly come together. The image of the liberated prisoner forsaking the light, compelled whether by force or obligation?Plato would say duty?to rejoin his companions in the murky darkness of the cave, is perhaps the key to the underlying unity of The Republic. It is in the individual that the two realms meet. Plato's aim, then, was to realize social and political stability on a foundation of moral and spiritual absolutes by which every man may live.