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The Vital Necessity of Very Old Books (2023)


Every Age Echoes with Its Own Ideas. Ancient Voices Offer a Way to Cut Through the Noise. A Response to a Critic of Old Books

There’s no need reading Aurelius or the other Stoics, says Hanania, because “anything intelligent or insightful they said you’ve probably absorbed already through run-of-the-mill blogs and self-help books, shorn of all the stupid things that inevitably made their way into their writings.” Chris Taylor at Mashable distilled most of their messages down to just eleven takeways, stuff such as: “take one small step,” “change your mental maps,” “instant judgment is bad,” and “remember the end of your life.” It all sounds pretty banal stated like that, and maybe some of it is. Whether for discovering useful ways of thinking, accessing conceptual and cognitive diversity, or simply seeking human solidarity amid the trials of life, reading old books is a winning strategy.

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