Some of the time, the Ancients got things wrong...really wrong. And our job isn’t so much to believe in them; it’s to engage with them.

This isn’t being disrespectful. Quite the opposite!

It’s taking part in a long, beautiful, and storied tradition, engaging in the Great Conversation, one that goes right back to the ancients themselves. Indeed, the entire history of philosophy is composed of debates, conflicts, arguments, and counterarguments.

And this begins right at the very beginning, with the Greeks themselves. Where would we be if Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had concurred on every point? Many of Aristotle’s central ideas were formed in opposition to his teacher’s, who in turn reacted against his own predecessor.