This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on how flatterers engage in imitation of, rather than genuine, frankness of speech with the people that they want to deceive into thinking they are actually friends. Plutarch identifies several ways in which the seeming frankness of flatterers differs from that of friends, and notes a particularly problematic tendency. Flatterers will often criticize the opposite of the vice, problem, or emotion that the flattered person has, which encourages them in that bad disposition or emotion. You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the importance of frankness of speech (in ancient Greek, parrhesia) within genuine friendship. Plutarch argues that we all need friends not only to be pleasant to us and praise us, but also to point out where we are going wrong in our attitudes, words, and actions. He provides advice about how and when we ought to exercise this frankness of speech You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of a number of tricks and techniques that more sophisticated flatterers use to attempt to imitate friendship. Among these are using a fake frankness of speech, imitating similarities with the person targeted, pretending to share the same problems or deficits, praising the person wrongly for their character rather than just their actions, and using a kind of "silent flattery" in actions. You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the role that similarity plays in generating and sustaining real friendships between people, and the deliberate and deceptive imitations of similarity on the part of flatterers. He also notes that flatterers will imitate negative characteristics and actions, whereas friends will generally share similarities in terms of good characters and actions. You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of assistance, services, ministering, and courtesies that flatterers and friends provide. Merely providing these or not does not allow us to distinguish flatterers from friends, so we need to look to other characteristics, such as the eagerness that a person shows, the moral quality of the services rendered, and the motivation of the person You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on one area in which we can tell flatterers from genuine friends, namely their attitudes and behavior towards other flatterers and towards our genuine friends. Flatterers will be envious of other flatterers and compete with them, and they will attempt to isolate their target from genuine friends. Real friends, by contrast, will want their friend to have other friendships and not be entirely dependent upon a single friend. Flatterers will also exhibit a two-faced behavior towards genuine friends. Publicly they will praise them and pretend to be respectful of them. Secretly they will attempt to spread slander about the genuine friends You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on criteria we can use to tell flatterers from friends. Early on in the work, Plutarch considers three potential criteria, namely whether a person gives pleasure to the other person, whether a person gives praise to the other person, or whether a person does services and courtesies to the other person. None of these work on their own to successfully differentiate friend from flatterer, and some people mistakenly think that one should swing to the other extreme and be disagreeable and fault-finding in order not to be a flatterer You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend This episode focuses specifically on the vulnerabilities to flatterers and flattery that we have within our own selves and characters. These stem from our own excessive self-love (philautia) which makes us liable to be flatterers of our own selves, and renders us liable to listen to those who confirm what we would like to think about ourselves, even if it is untrue. You can find the copy of the text I am using for this sequence on Plutarch's How To Tell A Flatterer From A Friend here - https://amzn.to/43fRQcd To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler (Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses different modes of alienation or estrangement within the story, largely but not solely concerning the character Gregor Samsa. He is already somewhat alienated in economic and social terms at the start of the story, and more so as the story goes on, but he is even more so in terms of the Samsa family dynamics and in relation to his own self. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories - amzn.to/3y29u37

This lecture discusses key ideas from the work of the 20th century novelist and short story writer, Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" This lecture discusses the responses and attitudes towards Gregor on the part of different minor characters in the short story, namely the cook and servant-girl who respond to Gregory with horror, the lodgers who pretend to be disgusted by him but really are just taking advantage of the situation, and the charwoman who exhibits a kind of rough friendliness towards him. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Purchase Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories - amzn.to/3y29u37