We often think of Galileo, Newton, or Bacon as the “fathers” of science. Yet few realise how deeply Aristotle had already laid its foundations more than two thousand years earlier.

Here’s how… 🧵(thread) Born in Stagira in 384 BC, Aristotle arrived in Athens at the age of seventeen to study at the Academy of the legendary Athenian philosopher, Plato. Here he would remain for twenty years, first as a student and then as a teacher himself.

On an autumn night in 1609, Galileo turned his newly built telescope toward the moon. What he saw set him on a path that ended, decades later, in a trial that changed the relationship between science and faith forever.

Here's the story of Galileo vs the Inquisition...🧵(thread) Galileo was born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Brilliant, caustic, and prone to argument, he spent his youth sparring with his professors on mathematics and astronomy.

Why should we still read a philosopher who taught 2,300 years ago?

Because Aristotle saw deeply into human nature, politics, and knowledge.

Here are five timeless pieces of wisdom that are as relevant today as they were then...🧵 1. The purpose of life is eudaimonia.
Aristotle thought that everything in the world was driven by some unique purpose or function and that human beings were no different.

Alexander the Great was a student of Aristotle

One of the greatest conquerors to ever live, taught by one of history’s greatest philosophers

But how much was Aristotle able to shape the man who set out to rule the world?

A thread on one of history’s most fraught mentorships🧵
In 343 BC, King Philip of Macedon summoned Aristotle to tutor his teenage son, Alexander

With a growing empire, Philip knew the day would come when he would need a successor. Alexander showed flashes of brilliance, but he was volatile too.

He needed a steady hand to guide him

Copernicus’ discovery that the Earth orbits the Sun wasn’t just a useful piece of astronomy, it fundamentally changed everything about how we saw the world.

Here’s the story of how an unwitting churchman upended a thousand-year worldview and rewrote reality itself... 🧵 Born in 1473 in the city of Toruń, in Royal Prussia, Copernicus never set out to overturn the established cosmological order.

He was trained as a canon lawyer, doctor, and administrator, and spent most of his career working for the cathedral chapter in Frombork.

The Enlightenment was fuelled by coffee.

Voltaire was even said to consume up to 50 cups a day!

Here's the story of how a strange and bitter drink from the East found its way to England and became the lifeblood of modern thought... 🧵 It’s fair to say that when Western merchants traversing Ottoman lands in the 17th century encountered the drink the locals called “Coffa” they weren’t impressed.

One remarked that it was as “blacke as soote, and tasting not much unlike it”

In the ancient world, the cosmos was understood through myth and stories.

Zeus ruled the heavens, Poseidon commanded the seas, and the harvest relied on the favour of Demeter.

But 2,500 years ago, on the shores of ancient Greece, a radical transformation in thought began… 🧵 Rather than just accept that gods were responsible for shaping the natural world, there were some ancient Greek thinkers who began to ask questions like:

What is the world made of?
How does it work?
Why do things change?

How did we lose sight of God in the West?

Part of the answer lies in a revolution that took place in the 16th & 17th centuries.

A revolution that began with the stars, but that would eventually reach into every corner of human thought… 🧵 For over a thousand years, the universe was understood through a synthesis of ancient Greek philosophy and Christian theology.

At its centre stood the Earth— fixed, unmoving, and crowned with divine purpose.

Above it, the heavens revolved in perfect, eternal order.

Can reason and rational understanding alone lead to human flourishing?

This question has shaped Western thought since the Enlightenment, and no philosopher embodied this ideal more powerfully than Baruch Spinoza.

But is it enough? ...🧵
Baruch Spinoza was a 17th Century Dutch philosopher who attempted a total re-conceptualisation of God as a means to reconcile religion with the emerging scientific worldview.

Seneca was a Roman Statesman and Stoic philosopher who had the unenviable job of advising one of Rome's most bloodthirsty rulers, the Emperor Nero

Despite the challenges, his life and philosophy offer timeless lessons about navigating power, conflict, and adversity

A thread 🧵 1/ Learn to persuade others who don’t share your values, rather than compromise them

When he was first appointed by Agrippina to tutor her young son the future emperor Nero, Seneca quickly learned that this was a boy who did not like being told what to do.

Antonin Sertillanges was a French Dominican friar and theologian who wrote what might be the greatest guide to the pursuit of meaningful work ever published.

Here are just six principles from his masterwork, The Intellectual Life, that will transform how you think and work... 🧵
1/ You don’t need genius to achieve great things

“One does not need extraordinary gifts to carry some work through; average superiority suffices; the rest depends on energy and wise application of energy" he writes.

What is it about great art that moves us so profoundly? For the 19th Century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, the answer lies in its capacity to strip away the illusions of our everyday lives and to connect us with the fundamental truths of reality.

Here's why... 🧵 Schopenhauer, who was significantly influenced by Eastern religious teachings, believed all existence to be defined by a ceaseless and inescapable striving that is the root of all pain and suffering in the world.

Friends,

Life is very busy at the moment — full of good things but it's been hard to find the time to write as much as I'd like to.

I will get back to writing threads soon but in the meantime here's a megathread of some of my more popular posts in case you've missed any! 🧵

https://x.com/TheEudaimonist/status/1788647307572846611

The essays of the French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) are a veritable treasure trove of practical guidance, advice, and wisdom relevant to living a good life.

Here are six of my favourite insights... 🧵

Socrates’ warnings in Plato’s Republic that the excessive freedom demanded by democracy will inevitably lead to despotism is so relevant to today, it’s almost prophetic.

Humanity possesses so much wisdom, and yet we refuse to listen to it.

Any of this sound familiar? … 🧵 "The pursuit of freedom makes it increasingly normal for fathers and sons to swap places: fathers are afraid of their sons, and sons no longer feel shame before their parents or stand in awe of them."

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish-born British statesman and philosopher, is often called the "father of modern conservatism."

His defence of tradition and gradual change remains an important counterbalance to the dangers of progressivism.

Let’s take a look at what he thought…🧵 "Society is... a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are dead, and those who are to be born."

The core principle at the heart of Burke’s philosophy is that society isn’t merely a contract between people living in the present...

In the Politics, Aristotle launches a scathing critique of Plato’s radical collectivist vision of a utopian political community— criticism that is still relevant today.

Here’s what the OG anti-communist had to say about the pitfalls of collectivisation. 🧵 (If you’re not familiar with Plato's Republic then you can read my summary of it here!)

https://x.com/TheEudaimonist/status/1779552473394348056

Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) identified thirteen virtues that he thought everyone should seek to master if they want to live a better and more prosperous life.

Let these be your guide... 🧵 I. TEMPERANCE

Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

Aristotle (384 -322 BC) famously wrote that “Man is, by nature, a political animal.”

But what did he actually mean by this?

Here’s a brief introduction to the main ideas in Aristotle’s Politics… 🧵 Before getting into Aristotle’s political thought, we must first understand something about his ethics, in particular the idea of telos, which we can think of as the ultimate purpose or function of a thing.

(The telos for a pair of scissors, for instance, is to cut things.)

Philosophers and thinkers often draw on mythology as a way to explore and develop their own ideas.

This isn’t just because myths provide rich and useful analogies (although they do).

It's because myths are narrative distillations of fundamental truths.

What do I mean?...🧵 Perhaps the most famous theoretical use of myth is in the concept of the “Oedipus Complex”, Sigmund Freud’s attempt to locate the origins of human neuroses in the unconscious mind.

Sophocles' dramatic masterpiece Oedipus Rex is perhaps the quintessential work of Classical Greek tragedy. Appalling and captivating in equal measure, it continues to fascinate and confound readers even today.

Here’s a brief guide to get you started with the play... 🧵 Written in the 5th century BC by the Athenian tragedian Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus (its Greek title; "Rex" is the more familiar Latin title) is the first in a series of three plays featuring the ill-fated King of Thebes (the others being Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone).