num_pages: 352
description: The New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss embarks on a rollicking intellectual journey following in the footsteps of historys greatest thinkers and showing us how eachfrom Epicurus to Gandhi Thoreau to Beauvoiroffers practical and spiritual lessons for todays unsettled times. We turn to philosophy for the same reasons we travel: to see the world from a different perspective to unearth hidden beauty and to find new ways of being. We want to learn how to embrace wonder. Face regrets. Sustain hope. Eric Weiner combines his twin passions for philosophy and global travel in a pilgrimage that uncovers surprising life lessons from great thinkers around the world from Rousseau to Nietzsche Confucius to Simone Weil. Traveling by train (the most thoughtful mode of transport) he journeys thousands of miles making stops in Athens Delhi Wyoming Coney Island Frankfurt and points in between to reconnect with philosophys original purpose: teaching us how to lead wiser more meaningful lives. From Socrates and ancient Athens to Simone de Beauvoir and twentieth-century Paris Weiners chosen philosophers and places provide important signposts as we navigate todays chaotic times. In The Socrates Express Weiner invites us to voyage alongside him on his life-changing pursuit of wisdom and discovery as he attempts to find answers to our most vital questions.
language: English
title: The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers
publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon  Schuster