Great Philosophers on Friendship and Solitude
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The history of philosophy features as many great questions as it does great thinkers. A set of questions affecting us all are those surrounding friendship. Philosophers have asked, for instance:
Are friends valuable, and if so in what does friendship's value consist? Do friends make us morally better? Do they inherently make us happier? Do they make us better off in some other way? Are there costs to friendship? And are they worth the cost?
This collection comprises several papers from students on these questions and excerpts from the philosophical works they engage. These papers were selected by students and the professor, Ian D. Dunkle, from among those submitted as an assignment for CAS PH 110 A1 Great Philosophers (Spring 2019) at Boston University.
Contents of Collection
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Introduction — Ian D. Dunkle
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Original Essays
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Selected Readings
a. Abdullah Al Kudsi "Valuable Indulgence: A Response to Schopenhauer and Social Pessimism"
b. Katherine Byrd "A Reflection on Moral Maxims"
c. Nathan Ho "Schopenhauer’s Disvalue of Society"
e. Adam Salachi "Self-Reflection through Genuine Friends: Expanding the Schopenhauerian Conception"
a. Cicero, On Friendship (abridged)
b. Epictetus, selections from Discourses
c. François La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (abridged)
d. Arthur Schopenhauer, selections from essays on suffering and the wisdom of life
Recently Added
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Great Philosophers on Friendship and Solitude (2019)
(Boston University Libraries, 2019)The complete collection of materials for Ian Dunkle's 2019 course on Great Philosophers on Friendship and Solitude, including Introduction, selection of student essays, and selected readings. -
Schopenhauer’s Disvalue of Society
(2019-05)In Parerga and Paralipomena, Schopenhauer argues against society and social interactions by highlighting various disadvantages or costs of society, such as interpersonal discord, restraint on one’s freedom, and obstruction ... -
Introduction to Great Philosophers of Friendship and Solitude
(2019-08)This is an introduction to the OpenBU collection, "Great Philosophers on Friendship and Solitude". -
Selected reading from the Discourses of Epictetus
(Project Gutenberg, 2004)Epictetus describes some of the core features of Stoic virtue, including freedom and the importance of solitude. -
Selected readings on Suffering and the Wisdom of Life
(Various, 2019)Schopenhauer, in two abridged essays, argues for, among other claims, the claim that human life is not worth living, that is, that the good life is unattainable by anyone ("On the Suffering of the World"); that the best ... -
Selected reading from Treatise on Friendship
(Project Gutenberg, 2009)Cicero describes the necessary features, the value, and the limits of friendship through a short dialogue. -
Selected reading of Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
(Project Gutenberg (Simpson Low, Son, and Marston), 1871)In a distinctive and polished series of short aphorisms, La Rochefoucauld explores the oddities of human nature and how they affect our use of moral categories to understand the behavior of ourselves and others. -
A reflection on Moral Maxims
(2019-06)