Happy 2015! A new year has begun and with it comes the opportunity for resolutions of good deeds and promises of better living. For many this means a new gym membership, setting aside time for reading or learning a new hobby. For most of us though this is simply a time to reflect on the past year and try to be a better person for the coming one.
'The School of Athens' by Raphael, 1509
In times gone by people looked to philosophers for guidance on how to live the good life. Across ancient Greece and Rome men argued about how best to live a good life, even during the 19th and 20th centuries morality was the realm of the philosopher. Though many at the time, and still today, looked to these figures for guidance on how to live the good life we sometimes wonder how did they act behind closed doors? How closely did they follow their own teachings?
In this week's show Susan is joined by Martin Cohen to talk about the thoughts, teachings, and daily lives of the great philosophers. For many people modern philosophy is a specialised field lost in a cloud of logic and specialisation and no longer applicable to everyday life. After years of studying the ever more complicated field Martin endeavoured to make philosophy more accessible with the publication of ‘101 Philosophy Problems’.
Since then he has continued to try and bring simplicity and popularity back to philosophy. His latest work, ‘How to Live: Wise (and not-so-wise) Advice from the Philosophers on Everyday Life’, continues this endeavour. Join us as we find out how to live, eat, love, sleep, and die like a philosopher.
In the second half of the show we continue our philosophical exploration as Susan is joined by author, editor, translator, and book collector Alberto Manguel. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina Alberto’s early life was filled with books and the world of literature as he met and studied under some of the nation’s leading intellectuals. His love of the written word consumed Alberto and he soon found himself working in publishing and journalism.
Then in 1980 his legacy truly began as he published ‘The Dictionary of Imaginary Places’. This travel guide to the fictional cities, nations, and other lands that populate our fantasies and books made Alberto Manguel an international champion of literature. Since the publication of this great work Alberto has continued to work closely with the written word and our relationship with it; editing numerous anthologies, translating a variety of works, and composing his own novels and essays.
This long career with the written word has no only seen Alberto emerge as a leading figure in the literary world but also as a major collector of books, with a personal library of roughly 40,000 books. Despite suffering a stroke in December 2013 today Alberto still continues his prolific work on the relationship between the book and the reader and the importance of the written word.
Listen back as Susan talks with Alberto about his life and how reading, in its broadest, sense defines our species. Why do we search for narratives in everything that surrounds us? How did a stroke give Alberto further insights into the workings of human language? And how has the emergence of e-books and virtual libraries changed how we read?
