Philosophy: Egypt, Greece, Rome & Western

In Ancient Greece, when the philosopher Socrates was asked to sum up what all philosophical commandments could be reduced to, he replied: Know yourself. Self-knowledge matters so much because it is only on the basis of an accurate sense of who we are that we can make reliable decisions particularly around love and work.

The Orphic hymns are fascinating historical artefacts87 devotions, invocations, and entreaties to the Greek gods that are as powerful today as they were when they were originally developed thousands of years ago.

A dictionary is a guide to a language. This dictionary is for the distinctive language that The School of Life speaks: that of emotions. It is an alphabetical selection of some 200 words and phrases that shed light on our feelings about ourselves, other people, and the workings of the modern world.

Few life skills are as neglected, yet as important, as the ability to remain calm. Our very worst decisions and interactions are almost invariably the result of a loss of calm and a descent into anxiety and agitation. Surprisingly, but very fortunately, our power to remain calm can be rehearsed and improved.

The stoics lived a long time ago, but they had some startling insights into the human condition-insights which endure to this day.

'This moving account of the life [Rowlands] lived with an adopted wolf will be recognized as a seminal work of philosophy that forces us to re-evaluate our view of the human animal' John Gray, author of Straw Dogs