TED Radio Hour
Using ancient philosophy to cope with your modern problems
April 17, 202649 min · 8,868 words
Show notes
Philosopher Meghan Sullivan says during tough times, ancient wisdom can serve as a guide. From politics to religion to AI, she poses big questions to help you find out what the good life means today. TED Radio Hour+ subscribers now get access to bonus episodes, with more ideas from TED speakers and a behind the scenes look with our producers. A Plus subscription also lets you listen to regular episodes (like this one!) without sponsors. Sign-up at: plus.npr.org/ted See pcm.adswizz.com
Highlighted moments
Cynicism is hard for philosophy, but skepticism we can work with.
“if you think about Plato as the great political revolutionary of ancient Greece, Aristotle, and I mean this with huge respect, is like the great self-help philosopher of ancient Greece, where he really gave people a lot of advice for how to flourish where they're planted.”
“Most virtues make you stronger. Love is this virtue that, weirdly, its strength comes from making you weaker.”
“I think that we are going to look back and realize that one of the biggest mistakes that we have made in this era of AI in the last, like, three years is giving AI's human personalities, like making them seem like they are people that could have virtues or vices, that could make jokes, that could be like Elon Musk if you use X, or that could be super moralistic if you use Claude.”
Transcript
Transcript not available for this episode yet.