Great Thinkers
The School of Life curates 60 influential thinkers from Western and Eastern philosophy, sociology, psychotherapy, art, architecture, and literature in accessible 1,500-3,000 word essays. Rather than academic comprehensiveness, the book mines history for ideas with the greatest practical relevance to contemporary life. It includes expected figures like Freud and Lao Tzu alongside unexpected choices like Coco Chanel and St Benedict, making philosophy applicable to daily dilemmas.
11 sections ยท 46 lessons
Course outline
Ancient Wisdom
- Question Assumptions
- Examine Values
- Find Balance
- Practice Virtues
- Ancient Wisdom
Stoic Resilience
- Control What's Yours
- Rehearse Adversity
- Stoic Resilience
Simple Living
- Simple Pleasures
- Need Less
- Simple Living
Self-Knowledge
- Accept Division
- Build Structure
- Understand Suffering
- Release Attachment
- Flow Naturally
- Trust Timing
- Master Relationships
- Practice Ritual
- Self-Knowledge
Facing Life
- Accept Yourself
- Observe Experience
- See Self-Deception
- Choose Genuine Virtue
- Facing Life
Existentialism
- Understand Fully
- View Eternally
- Existentialism
Psychology
- Accept Suffering
- Lower Expectations
- Love Your Fate
- Test Eternity
- Create Meaning
- Choose Authentically
- Psychology
Eastern Philosophy
- Explore Unconscious
- Make Unconscious Conscious
- Early Bonds
- Good Enough Parent
- Inner Objects
- Depressive Position
- Eastern Philosophy
Political Thought
- Political Realism
- Ends and Means
- Social Construction
- Class Conflict
- Sympathy and Morality
- Moral Economics
- Political Thought
Art and Perception
- Proust's Perception: Involuntary Memory
- Art as Guide
- Art and Perception
Design Philosophy
- Simplicity and Function
- Timeless Design
- Human-Scale Communities
- Bottom-Up Planning
- Design Philosophy