Plato's Podcasts: The Ancients' Guide to Modern Living [Paperback]

Under this populist title, Mark Vernon has written a very readable book about his own personal and often engaging reflections on what we can learn from the ancient Greek philosophers. He gives much historical background for each of them; tells stories and legends about them which may not all have been true but which symbolize the impact the philosophers have made; and relates their wisdom amusingly to present-day ways of living. One could look at each chapter as a mini-sermon on how we should live today, from an author who was once a clergyman, and whose congregations must surely have greatly appreciated them.

Each chapter focusses on one aspect, like `Plato and the love of conversation', `Aristotle on surviving unpopularity', `Diogenes on the deceptiveness of fame', or `Zeno of Citium on the psychology of shopping'. They are written in a delightfully easy style and can be understood and appreciated by readers who have no background in philosophy at all.

Those who do have a general background will almost certainly learn quite a lot, for Vernon does not confine himself to the major names, but has chapters on Diotima of Mantinea (she might not even have existed, but, as a character in Plato's Symposium, has wise things to say about Love); on Onesicritus (who reported on the naked yogis he had encountered when in India with Alexander's army); on Hipparchia of Maronaia (who loved an ugly philosopher for his mind and not his body); on Bion of Borysthenes (who taught the value of empathy, of truly understanding points of view that are not your own); on Marcus Manilius (who espoused determinism and thought that wisdom consists of accepting your place in the chain of cause and effect); on Secundus the Silent (who, having found how destructive words can be, chose never to speak again!); and on Hypatia of Alexandria (the noble Hellenist philosopher who was cruelly killed by a fanatical Christian mob; the lesson being, I suppose, how unphilosophical is it to be a fanatic) - of all of whom I, for one, knew nothing.

And as for the famous ones: I did not know that Plato was a nickname, possibly meaning `powerfully built' for a man born as Aristocles and said to have been a wrestler before he became a philosopher.

On what I think is rather slight evidence, Vernon extracts from Aristotle his supposed equanimity at the ups and downs in his career which were determined by the ups and downs of the Macedonian royal family whom he and his father had served.

I knew that the Stoa from which the Stoics got their name was a colonnade, but not that it was a shopping precinct - hence the name attributed to the chapter on Zeno (though it was his follower Epictetus who specifically discussed how a Stoic should react to missing out on a bargain).

Several philosophers have valuable things to say about eating and drinking in moderation, and the value of occasional fasting; and Vernon shows how such advice can be of philosophical as well as of medical value: it is good for the mind as well as for the body.

The last chapter discusses the different things the ancients had said about death, and the intellectual, spiritual and indeed physical disciplines they practised to prepare themselves for that inevitable event. Someone who has lived a truly philosophical life should find that death has no terrors for him.

The threads connecting some of Vernon's reflections with what he tells us that his philosophers actually did or said are sometimes a little tenuous; but this is a most enjoyable book.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of this book. The ancients have a lot to teach us and the questions they asked refuse to go away. This book tries to do too much too quickly and ends up being too superficial to be really useful except as an appetiser for real study later on with a more authoritative guide.
For one thing the author does not cite his sources and comes out with some crashing generalisations which would have Plato and co spinning in their sarcophagus. He does not acknowledge his translators and some of them are awful. He gets easy things like dates wrong (Seneca was put to death by the emperor Nero in 65 AD as every schoolboy knows, and yet here he is listed as living in the 2nd Century) and his English style is in real need of a decent copy editor. His brush is so broad that the Epicureans end up sounding just like the Stoics and this makes one wonder if he has actually read the sources at all.
The book is good on the tabloid sort of stories one can find in the lives of philosophers: but it would have been better to discuss fewer ancient thinkers and examine their ideas in more depth. There is enough in Plato alone to fill a dozen books like this.
The great thing about ancient philosophy is that we are all still arguing about it - even arguing about exactly what they thought in the first place, let alone whether it is true or not. This book packs it all up far too neatly and ducks too many difficult questions to be recommended.

Using the ancient philosophers as a guide, Mark Vernon offers a warm, engaging, thoughtful and witty take on the modern travails of sex, relationships, money, work, fame and death. This is an intriguing and enjoyable book that makes philosophy accessible and gives fresh insights into contemporary existence. Strongly recommended.