Anger is among the most powerful of human emotions. A great number of people neither know how to control it nor how to cope with it. Instead, we let it control us and it makes us do things which we might later regret. By consulting the ancient roman philosopher Seneca, Botton tries to explain to us why we get angry and how we can control it. Seneca believed we get angry simply because our expectations for any given aspect in life are too high. When things don’t go the way we want them to, we get angry, and by lowering our expectations we won’t be let down so easily and so we won’t get angry.
Series Review:
In this documentary series, Alain de Botton takes us into the world of philosophy and tries to unravel some of the most important and difficult questions of our lives. These questions about love, hardship, anger, happiness, self-confidence and self-esteem pose problems to many and solutions to these problems are not always easy to come by. Botton helps us by turning to great thinkers of the past who have spent many years thinking about these aspects of our lives and tries to reassure us that there is always a solution to life‘s problems.

Other Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness Episodes: Socrates on Self-Confidence, Montaigne on Self-Esteem, Epicurus on Happiness, Nietzsche on Hardship, Schopenhauer on Love.

Watch the Full Free Documentary Online (Playlist)