Jules Evans speaks about how philosophy can save your life

When Jules Evans was in his late teens, he started to be plagued by panic attacks, mood swings and other emotional problems.

He eventually found help in the form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). He went to interview the inventors of CBT, and discovered they were directly inspired by ancient Greek philosophy. This started him on a five-year journey of discovery, in which he found out how life-transforming the ideas of ancient Greek philosophy can be. He met and interviewed people from many walks of life who claimed to have been greatly helped by ancient philosophy, including gangsters, astronauts, soldiers and politicians.

Now, he passionately believes that the therapeutic ideas of ancient philosophy need to be rescued from the dusty museum cabinets of academia, and brought to as many people as possible, to help them improve their lives.

Jules Evans

Jules Evans is policy director at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. He is also a journalist, has appeared on BBC 2′s Culture Show, on Radio 3 and 4, RTE-1, ABC Australia, and has written for The Times, Spectator, Wall Street Journal, Prospect and many other publications. His book, Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations, is being published in 19 countries, and was described as ‘a revelation’ by The Observer.

TEDxBreda