Philosophy for Everyday Life

Test a big word like 'fair' or 'success' the way Socrates did: ask for a definition, look for a case that breaks it, and fix it. Learn to question an idea without attacking the person.

Take any argument apart into premises and a conclusion, find the premise nobody said out loud, and tell whether the conclusion really follows.

Recognise the six reasoning mistakes you meet most often, in other people and in yourself, and answer them without turning a conversation into a contest.

Sort a worry into what is up to you and what isn't, notice the judgment that is actually upsetting you, and use two Stoic habits on an ordinary bad day.

Sort your wants the way Epicurus did, tell a pleasure that lasts from one that costs you later, and understand his famous argument that death is nothing to fear.

Use Aristotle's idea of virtue as a mean between too much and too little to judge a real reaction, and plan how to build a trait you want, one habit at a time.

Learn how Bentham and Mill judged right and wrong by consequences, how to weigh everyone affected, and where this way of thinking runs into trouble.

Use Kant's two tests, 'what if everyone did this?' and 'am I using this person?', to judge an action by its principle rather than its payoff, and know where his view gets too rigid.

Put consequences, duty and character to work together on real dilemmas: see where they agree, find the real sticking point when they don't, and look for a better third option.

Tell apart the three main answers to the free will puzzle (determinism, libertarian free will and compatibilism), avoid confusing determinism with fatalism, and use the debate when you judge yourself and others.

Use Sartre's idea of bad faith and Camus's idea of the absurd to spot when you're hiding from your own choices, and to think about meaning when no answer is handed to you.

Follow Nazanin as she turns the whole course into four working principles, then use the same steps to draft, test and keep a few principles of your own.