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    Letters to Sofia about Happiness: Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
    Letters to Sofia about Happiness: Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
    Letters to Sofia about Happiness: Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    Letters to Sofia about Happiness: Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

    By Raffaele Tamborrino

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    About this ebook

    A father, living far away from his family because of his work, decides to write some letters to his daughter Sofia. His letters are animated by the desire to support her growth and to teach her important moral values.
    Inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, he puts together lessons of philosophy, ethical teachings and his personal considerations, all of which are useful for reflecting on how to make our lives happier.
    In Letters to Sofia about Happiness, the author explains, with simple language and a practical approach, the thoughts of these leading philosophers of Athens with the intention of demonstrating the accessibility of their theories.
    The teachings of these three great fathers of Western philosophy, together with pearls of wisdom borrowed from other important thinkers, become a precious guide to understand how to develop an authentic life.
    A challenge to the readers? Maybe. Perhaps these letters will appear bizarre in the present day. And if it were not so bizarre? Discovering (or rediscovering) these great classics could be a very wise choice.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRaffaele Tamborrino
    Release dateSep 9, 2017
    ISBN9788826400433
    Letters to Sofia about Happiness: Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

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      Book preview

      Letters to Sofia about Happiness - Raffaele Tamborrino

      Raffaele Tamborrino

      Letters to Sofia about Happiness

      Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

      Letters to Sofia about Happiness

      Life lessons inspired by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

      Originally published in Italian under

      the title Lettere a Sofia sulla felicità.

      Copyright © 2017 Raffaele Tamborrino

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN: 1548081094

      ISBN-13: 978-1548081096

      Preface by Antonella Di Maio.

      Cover design by Vincenza Bruno.

      On the cover: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle,

      drawn from The School of Athens by Raphael (Vatican Museums).

      Letters to Sofia about Happiness is also available in print.

      To contact the author

      E-mail: raffaele@tamborrino.com

      Skype: raffaele.tamborrino

      Facebook page: @LetterstoSofia

      This book supports the UNICEF campaign For Sofia.

      Profits from the sale of this book will be donated

      for projects to protect refugee children.

      For Sofia and all those who love her

      There are two things that children should

      receive from their parents: roots and wings.

      J.W. Goethe

      Contents

      Preface

      Author’s Note

      Introduction

      Chapter One

      Happiness According to Socrates

      1.1 Biographical notes on Socrates

      1.2 Consider money as a tool, never the goal

      1.3 Feed your mind with knowledge

      1.4 Live in total awareness

      1.5 Recognise your limits

      1.6 Know thyself

      1.7 Never stop asking questions

      1.8 Be open to dialogue with others

      1.9 Behave according to your principles

      1.10 Obey the laws

      Chapter Two

      Happiness According to Plato

      2.1 Biographical notes on Plato

      2.2 Commit to your education

      2.3 Keep your mind vigilant

      2.4 Commit yourself to the common benefit

      2.5 Fall in love with the right person

      2.6 Share your happiness with your soul mate

      2.7 Questioning your convictions

      2.8 Acting according justice

      2.9 Behaving honestly

      2.10 Living with temperance

      Chapter Three

      Happiness According to Aristotle

      3.1 Biographical notes on Aristotle

      3.2 Choosing life goals wisely

      3.3 Living virtuously and rationally

      3.4 Developing our talents

      3.5 Having self-confidence

      3.6 Develop wisdom

      3.7 Living with courage, patience and generosity

      3.8 Relating properly with others

      3.9 Building strong friendships

      3.10 Contributing to our community’s progress

      Conclusions

      Bibliography

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Preface

      Letters to Sofia about Happiness is a tale, founded on didactic and epistolary letters, characterised by its narrative simplicity. It has an agile and linear text structure and is richly imbued with life lessons.

      At its base is the noble idea of a father who dusts off some of the finest pages of classical thought to help his daughter grow up with moral values. Writing to Sofia, the author traces and updates issues that immortalised Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

      The three great fathers of Western philosophy are not just voices in a distant and apparently elusive past; they can become life companions whose teachings, once metabolised, are even valid today.

      By quoting dialogues, myths and theories, the author offers a short but concentrated philosophical journey with the theme of happiness as its common thread. In fact, the goal of these three philosophers is always to draw the ideal way to be wiser and happier.

      The tale proposed by Raffaele Tamborrino, author and narrator, is not, however, a simple philosophical guide, nor is it an anthology of letters with sentimental characteristics.

      Rather, Letters to Sofia about Happiness is a delicate path that tries to maintain the right balance (a task that is not always easy) between the didactic nature of the content (after all, this book is talking about philosophy) and the author’s aim to educate his daughter about values that underpin an authentic life.

      The author does not just bring together the thoughts of three philosophers; sometimes he compares them, immerses them in modern reality, imagines their reactions and invents short dialogues between them and young Sofia.

      Meanwhile, he interweaves his theme with reflections and personal advice, strengthened here and there by pearls of wisdom borrowed from other important names such as Confucius, Cicero, Dante, Dostoyevsky, Gramsci, Mandela, Montaigne, Weber and others.

      The simplicity (despite the depth of the issues) and choice of colloquial language make these pages accessible for everyone; indeed, achieving happiness is important to all of us and I like to think that everyone can know the way to be happy.

      For Sofia, and not only for her, these are very important life lessons that echo from afar and settle naturally on these pages, especially because the most authentic values, after all, never lose currency.

      Antonella Di Maio

      Author’s Note

      Quotations of classical texts mentioned in Letters to Sofia about Happiness are not a faithful translation of original sentences. They are a result of the author’s personal reflection, aimed at making these easier to understand and consistent with the affordable and epistolary style of this book without changing their original meaning.

      Introduction

      Dear Sofia, I hope you will always be a happy person and that you will make the right choices to live in a responsible and conscious way. As a father, I feel it is my duty to prepare you in the best way possible for all the challenges you will face and to give you some suggestions on dealing with the problems you’ll inevitably have to manage.

      Unfortunately, circumstances in life force us, in this period, to live far away from each other. For this reason, I want to bridge the gap that divides us by writing these letters, in which I report, in addition to my personal suggestions, the advice and lessons of major philosophers of the past on how to deal with life and how to be happy.

      You won’t find academic elaboration here. Rather, you will read the thoughts of a father who decided to explain to his daughter, in simple language, what he learned from the greatest philosophers. In fact, these lessons are useful, even today, to help us understand how to live in the best way.

      From ancient times, people have questioned the meaning of life and how best to pursue happiness. Everyone can have a personal opinion on this matter. However, it can be of great help to read answers that wise people from the past gave to questions such as the following: What is the ultimate purpose of our existence? What makes us truly happy? How should we behave in order to live peacefully?

      Great advances in technology and medical knowledge are helpful in allowing us to live longer and more comfortable lives, but they are certainly not enough to solve all the problems individuals run into on the existential journey, especially in their relationships. Indeed, it is precisely when there are difficulties (for example, when we suffer from a debilitating disease) that it is necessary to make use of internal psychic energies to manage and overcome adversities.

      According to the famous Roman philosopher and orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero, we must get used to practicing the medical art of the soul that is philosophy, which helps people positively influence their sphere of consciousness and feed their mind with knowledge (the word philosophy in ancient Greek literally means love of wisdom). Plato says: Philosophy is the use of our knowledge for the benefit of the individual. Indeed, taking care of mental health is just as important as taking care of physical health.

      In modern language, we often mistakenly confuse the meaning of happiness (which is a general condition of satisfaction and psychological wellbeing) with fleeting emotions, such as joy or cheerfulness. In ancient times, however, the concept of happiness was closely linked to that of eudemonia, which literally means to be in the company of a good demon. This referred to the person who, living according to virtue, reached a state of inner peace.

      In these letters (that I hope will be followed by others), I want to explain to you, in particular, the thoughts of the three leading philosophers of ancient Greece (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) who lived between the fifth and fourth century BC and whose ideas formed the foundation of Western thought.

      At that time, Greece was not a unitary state. There were numerous independent city-states: the so-called polis was an autonomous city that had its own laws and its own political government bodies that ruled in the interests of the citizens. Among these

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