The Consolations of Philosophy

“De Botton picks six philosophers — Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche — and pairs each with a specific modern anxiety: unpopularity, not having enough money, frustration, inadequacy, a broken heart, difficulties. The approach is deliberately practical, and it works as an introduction because it gives each thinker a concrete problem to solve.”