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Last Updated: 2024-01-24
On the walls of the temple at Delphi were two large inscriptions that the ancient Greeks revered: "Know Thyself" and "Nothing To Excess." Even today, 2500 years later, we recognize that there is great wisdom in these sayings. Yet it is no easier for us than it was for the ancients to truly understand and live by that wisdom.
Aristotle, one of the greatest minds of ancient Greece and indeed all human history, grappled deeply with the question of how to live. Not only are the truths he found beautifully compelling but, suitably adapted to modern circumstances, they can help us live the best life possible today.
Aristotle's fundamental insight is that the only way to really know yourself is to complete yourself: to fully develop and activate your capacities as a human being, foremost among them your yearning to understand the world you live in. At root, his vast writings are an unfolding and elucidation of this truth.
Many years ago, when I was a budding scholar of ancient Greek philosophy at Columbia University, one of my mentors said to me: "It doesn't matter what's true, it matters what you can get published." That was excellent career advice, because it led me to abandon academia in favor of a successful career in technology. However, it was lousy philosophy, because nothing matters more than the truths that free us to be, not merely highly accomplished in our careers, but highly accomplished as human beings.
This is the promise of what Socrates called the examined life, and it is a promise that Aristotle's philosophy fulfills in spades, if only we can come to understand it. It is to help reveal his truths that I have written this book.