Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy From Socrates to Plotinus

摘要

John M. Cooper's book is important for organizational wisdom scholars and practitioners because it presents a sustained and necessary corrective. Cooper discusses six major classical Greek philosophical communities or academies: the Socratics, Aristotelians, Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics, and Platonists. The corrective he provides is that classical Greek philosophy was not solely an academic pursuit; rather, it was also a practical pursuit. It was the pursuit of a way of living one's everyday life wisely as a member of a community. Philosophy, and its theory, is the platform on which a life is made, but the quality of the life is the ultimate marker of wisdom. Socrates was clear that to lead a wise life one should not take things for granted; one must constantly question, analyze, and reflect on what is taken to be true.