Preorder Offer: "How to Think Like Socrates"
Read an exclusive excerpt about Socrates, Stoicism and CBT, and claim your special discount when ordering the book!
How to Think Like Socrates, the follow-up to How to Think Like a Roman Emperor is now available to preorder in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats. (I’ll be narrating the audiobook myself.) Barnes and Noble are currently offering 25% off all preorders — see below for the special discount code. We also wanted to give you a flavor of the book. So below you can see the table of contents and read an exclusive excerpt about Socrates, Stoicism, and CBT.
A Personal Note
Socrates has always been my favorite philosopher. I enjoy writing about Marcus Aurelius but, for me, the heart of Stoic philosophy comes from Socrates — the “godfather of Stoicism”, as I like to call him. Socrates is a far more complex historical figure, though, so for many years I felt like it would be impossible to write a book about him that followed the same format as the one I’d written about Marcus Aurelius, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor.
I think spending long periods in Athens changed my perspective. I came to see Socrates less as an imposing figure in the history of academic philosophy and more as a living, breathing, human being, who had once walked where I was walking — who lived and died right there in the city centre, or agora. Once I began writing, the book came together quite naturally. I simply created the book about Socrates that I would have wanted to read as a young man — and I enjoyed looking forward to being able to share this with other people.
Nevertheless, in another sense, this was probably the hardest book that I’ve ever written in terms of the quantity of research required, which took me about a year and a half of pretty intense work altogether. (On top of years of research I’d already done for the course I run on Socrates, etc.) At a rough estimate, I’d say about four times more work went into this book than How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. We’re very pleased with how it turned out, and the feedback from academics and other authors, which you can read below, has been overwhelmingly positive.
It’s an introduction to philosophy as a way of life that’s as gripping as any novel, and is as novel as a philosophy book can be. Highly recommended! —Tom Morris
What other Authors Have Said
“One of the best books ever written on the power and practicality of philosophy for a good and successful life! Wisdom isn’t a rulebook but a mindset. It develops from a life of honest and courageous inquiry. Donald J. Robertson masterfully and vividly takes us back to the Athens of Socrates and recreates the setting as well as the powerful ideas that one place, time, and person launched into the world forever. It’s an introduction to philosophy as a way of life that’s as gripping as any novel, and is as novel as a philosophy book can be. Highly recommended!” —Dr. Tom Morris, author of Stoicism for Dummies and Plato’s Lemonade Stand
“Robertson creates a wonderful semi-fictionalized Socrates to introduce modern readers to the birth of philosophy in Athens. We experience first-hand the method Socrates made famous—of subjecting our deepest beliefs to a cross-examination that jolts and stings like an electric ray. In our modern world that swirls with half-truths and disinformation, we need nothing less to awaken us from our illusions.” —Prof. Nancy Sherman, author of Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience
"An intriguing and original book, engagingly written and highly accessible. It is innovative both in linking the Socratic dialogues, especially those of Plato, with their historical context and in highlighting the significance of Socratic philosophical enquiry for modern readers. The connection made between Socratic method and CBT psychotherapeutic guidance is particularly suggestive." —Prof. Chris Gill, author of Learning to Live Naturally: Stoic Ethics and its Modern Significance
“A fresh and original introduction to the figure of Socrates, blending philosophy, history, and psychotherapy. Robertson invites readers to take up the Socratic method of self-examination and to embrace a life guided by rational reflection.”—Dr. John Sellars, author of The Pocket Stoic
"Don Robertson is your trusty and insightful guide to the life, times, and thought of the most important philosopher in the western tradition."—Massimo Pigliucci, author of How to Be a Stoic
Table of Contents
The Trial
The First Philosopher
The Female Socrates
The Oracle of Apollo
The Wisest Man Alive
The Lion of Athens
The Peloponnesian War
The Sicilian Expedition
The Fall of Athens
The Thirty Tyrants
The Swan Song
As a young therapist in training, I was astounded… to come across ancient Greek dialogues where Socrates was doing something I can only describe as a precursor of cognitive therapy.
Excerpt
It was from Socrates that Stoicism derived some of its most important ideas. The pioneers of cognitive- behavioral therapy (CBT) frequently quote the famous saying of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus that “people are not upset by events but rather by their opinions about them.” The same idea can be found four centuries before Epictetus, though, in the Socratic dialogues. This basic insight into the nature of emotion leads us to the use of reason as a therapeutic technique, as it implies that we should question the assumptions that cause our distress, if we want to get better.
Many different techniques can be used to change our thoughts and beliefs— our “cognitions,” as psychologists call them. The goal of CBT, put simply, is to replace irrational and unhealthy cognitions with rational and healthy ones. One obvious way of doing that is by asking questions, such as:
Where’s the evidence for that?
What are the consequences of that way of looking at things?
How might other people view that situation differently?
Aaron T. Beck, one of the founders of CBT, said that he initially came across this idea when he was studying Plato’s Republic for a college philosophy course. “Socratic questioning,” of this sort, later became a mainstay of his style of therapy. Countless research studies now show that cognitive therapy techniques of this kind, targeting dysfunctional beliefs, can help people suffering from clinical depression, anxiety disorders, and a host of other emotional problems.
As a young therapist in training, I was astounded, nevertheless, to come across ancient Greek dialogues where Socrates was doing something I can only describe as a precursor of cognitive therapy. He behaved like a relationship counselor or family therapist, at times, by helping his friends, and even his own family members, to resolve their interpersonal conflicts. I wondered why no one had ever told me that Socrates was doing cognitive psychotherapy, of sorts, nearly two and a half thousand years before it was supposedly invented.
On one occasion, for instance, Socrates’s teenage son, Lamprocles, was complaining about his notoriously sharp- tongued mother, the philosopher’s fiery young wife, Xanthippe. Socrates, it seemed to me, questioned his son in an incredibly skillful manner. He managed to get Lamprocles to concede that Xanthippe was actually a good mother, who genuinely cared for him. The boy insisted, however, that he still found her nagging completely intolerable. After some discussion, Socrates asked what struck me as an ingenious therapeutic question: Do actors in tragedies take offense when other characters insult and verbally abuse them? As Socrates remarked, they say things far worse than anything Xanthippe ever did.
Lamprocles thought it was a silly question. Of course they don’t take offense, but that’s because they know that despite appearances the other actors do not, in reality, mean them any harm! It’s just make-believe. That’s correct, replied Socrates, but didn’t you admit just a few moments earlier that you don’t believe your mother really means you any harm either?
I’ll leave you to mull this conversation over. I hope you notice how, with a few simple questions, Socrates helped Lamprocles to examine his anger from a radically different perspective. When assumptions that fuel our anger begin to seem puzzling to us, our thinking can become more flexible, and we may begin to break free from the grip of unhealthy emotions. What once seemed obvious, now seems uncertain. Indeed, the brief dialogue that takes place between them encapsulates one of the recurring themes of Socratic philosophy: How can we distinguish between appearance and reality in our daily lives?
Claim your Discount
Preorder HOW TO THINK LIKE SOCRATES in any format at Barnes & Noble from 10th — 17th July and get 25% off with code PREORDER25. Note: this discount is only available to B&N members but free “Rewards” memberships are available.
Looking forward to this! Will probably be useful after a certain first Tuesday this November.