Worldly Possessions: Do You Possess Them? Or Do THEY Possess You?

How should we think about our manifold worldly possessions?--the cars, clothes, houses, boats, bags, and countless fancy electronic gadgets by which we’re everywhere surrounded (and, whether we notice their encroachment on us or not, increasingly consumed?) Do we submit to and agree to be enslaved by them? Or, resisting their claim on us, do we fight, renounce, and abstain from them entirely?

Perhaps there’s a middle path.

In this episode, we’ll explore two ways of dealing with the problem of worldly possessions: one offered by Aristippos the Cyrenaic, and the other by Antisthenes, the ascetic. Both bear the distinction of having been pupils of Socrates, the great master and father of Western philosophy under whom they studied till the end of his life.

Each man’s approach to this problem couldn’t be more different from that of his classmate. I’m curious to know with whom you’ll side…

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