[asta123]

Alain’s School of Life has been excellent for me. Mostly introducing me to well known philosophers, psychologists and summary of their ideas. It fascinated me that challenges analysed by thinkers a century or more ago apply to me today. There I discovered stuff like - 19th century idea how modern man would not need religion and would find meaning in education, art, chosen profession - and here we are none the wiser; Emile Durkheim’s 19th century analysis of people heading for life of opportunity in the cities… and getting more depressed; How differences between Catholic and Protestant Europe could be shaping our approach to work today... Shame my introduction to philosophy happens through a YouTube channel and was not part of my education, but I guess needs some life experience to appreciate it.

[martopix]

If this makes you feel better, I studied philosophy in high school (rather common in Italy), and it was 100% history of philosophy. We spent inane amounts of time on presocratic debates on whether water, air, or apeiron was the fundamental element of nature, then another year on the middle ages, and when things got relevant for modern life (Freud, Nietzsche) we stopped, and never got to the existentialists, Popper and contemporaries.