READ THIS: BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES An Extraordinary (Philosophical) Journey Through Your Ordinary Day By Robert Rowland Smith
We always want you to be thinking. Although Philosophy normally is not a topic we delve into, Breakfast with Socrates highlights some great basic philosophy that is completely relatable, interesting, and influential. Of course, Peachy was taught philosophy at Boston College, in Perspectives.
What drew us to the book most of all was our shared general curiousity, which is also a significant trait of Socrates. The unexamined life may not be worth living, but if you don't examine this book, you may not be living to the fullest! Don't you want to be wise? Don't you want to know what the law of three steps is the next time someone brings it up at a cocktail party?
You may think your daily activities are mundane, but Breakfast with Socrates evaluates them in a light that will probably be new to most of you. Getting ready, travelling to work, etc are you really thinking about what you are doing? You will now! Lovely fantasies of quitting your job are looked at, and await you! Nothing is unexamined in this book, as topics range from waking up, death, and health to freedom, sex, and the good life.
Window shopping even gets a mention, and you know we are enthusiastic window critics:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/search/label/New%20Window
Whom You Know recommends Breakfast with Socrates, and we dedicate this to our baby brother who now has his PhD and is teaching all about this; he was not part of this book review. Amd to the author, we disagree with you on p.181: we are being useful, to you!
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What is the philosophy of sweat? Where does the drive for sex come from? In BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES: An Extraordinary (Philosophical) Journey Through Your Ordinary Day (Free Press; March 9, 2010; $22.00), philosopher and lecturer Robert Rowland Smith explores modern life and conjures up various geniuses to accompany you as you go about your daily routines. BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES shows how history’s greatest ideas – not just from philosophy but from other areas like psychology and politics – relate to how we live, encouraging us to be more thoughtful about our everyday routines. We just might learn to appreciate the importance behind the so-called trivial things we do, such as getting dressed and falling asleep, and see them in a new light.
Explore your routines with BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES:
Waking Up
If you’re awake at least you’re conscious. Or are you? How do you know you’re not still asleep? Descartes’ theory of “I think therefore I am” implies that waking up is a direct encounter with consciousness and existence. You’ve already gotten a philosophical workout and you haven’t even brushed your teeth yet!
Traveling to Work
As we ride the train in the morning, dreading our commute, we think about crawling back into bed, or winning the lottery so we wouldn’t have to work anymore—anything to avoid the reality of the day that lies ahead of us. This is what Nietzsche calls the doctrine of two worlds, whereby we invent an ideal world to escape the one we’re in.
Being At Work
Work is defined as the exchange of labor for money, but Marx sees this definition as unfair because it creates a system run by self-interested masters (our bosses). Weber might suggest that it is fair but still dominated by masters who have learned self-denial (are oblivious to the everyman’s struggle). Rowland Smith theory’s calls for less abstract forms of working (sitting in a cubicle) and, instead, one that has more tangible results, like collecting hay into bundles or darning socks!
Playing Hooky
Seinfeld’s George Costanza leaves his car in the company lot for days while he leaves early to take the train, leaving his jacket on the driver’s seat to fool his co-workers. John Stewart Mills is encouraging in taking the day off while Durkheim implies that it’s simply not good for you. Playing hooky sits on a paradox in which you are both parent and child. You are taking your freedom into your own hands, but are prepared to face the risks – it’s both sneaky and independent.
Going to the gym
As you toil on the treadmill, is your panting a sign of virtue or of vice, of healthy exertion or unhealthy narcissism? Working out is a version of what sociologist Max Weber called the Protestant work ethic, a kind of spiritual exercise. It can also lead to worldly vanity in which we are conforming to “body fascism,” where no one strays from the fit mold. Michel Foucault would see the gym as a place where people are subjected to the needs of the state. Our heart rate is not the only thing that’s logged but our comings and goings and our deviations from the norm. We could rebel against the system and follow Bahktin’s theory that the body is a carnival, irregularities are accepted and obesity is a sign of self-expression. Go ahead, have another cookie.
Having Sex
We can look to the ancient Greek myth that Zeus chopped us down the middle upon creation so that we spend our lives looking for our other half, making sameness, not difference, the cause of sexual attraction. But social theorist Theodor Adorno and Darwin take a more scientific approach – sexual pleasure is just a biological trick to preserve the species. Not very romantic!
Falling Asleep and Dreaming
When we fall asleep, we’re metaphorically falling, surrendering ourselves to slumber. But while our bodies rest, the mind is still going. Our dreams, as Freud declares, reveal who we really are and what we truly think. Freud’s rival, Carl Jung, developed a theory that our unconsciousness works more like “folk” memory – a subliminal passing down through generations. So before you turn the lights off, ask yourself: are you in bed with Freud or Jung?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Rowland Smith has been a don at All Souls College, Oxford, and a partner in a leading firm of management consultants. He has lectured at universities around the world and has broadcast for BBC Radio and TV. He now has a column in the Sunday Times Magazine, gives public lectures, teaches at Alain de Botton’s School of Life, advises companies, and writes on philosophy, psychology, literature and art. He lives in London with his wife and has three daughters. Online: http://www.robertrowlandsmith.
TITLE: Breakfast with Socrates: An Extraordinary (Philosophical) Journey Through Your Ordinary Day
AUTHOR: Robert Rowland Smith
Pub Date: March 9, 2010 IMPRINT: Free Press ISBN: 978-1-4391-4867-9 PRICE: $22.00/hardcover
