The best things in life : a contemporary Socrates looks at power, pleasure, truth, and the good life

What are the best things in life? Questions like that may boggle your mind. But they don't boggle Socrates. The indomitable old Greek brings his unending questions to Desperate State University. With him come the same mind-opening and spirit-stretching challenge that disrupted ancient Athens. What is the purpose of education? Why do we make love? What good is money? Can computers think like people? Is there a difference between Capitalism and Communism? What is the greatest good? Is belief in God like belief in Santa Claus? In twelve short, Socratic dialogues Peter Kreeft explodes contemporary values like success, power and pleasure. And he bursts the modern bubbles of agnosticism and subjectivism. He leaves you richer, wiser and more able to discern what the best things in life actually are. What are the best things in life? Questions like that boggle our minds. But they don't boggle Socrates. What would happen if the indomitable old Greek suddenly awoke and brought his undending questions to the campus of Desperate State University? Peter Kreeft imagines that with him would come the same mind-opening and spirit-stretching challenges that disrupted ancient Athens. What is the purpose of education? Why do we make love? What good is money? Can computers think like people? Is there a difference between capitalism and communism? What is the greatest good? Is belief in God like belief in Santa Claus? In twelve short Socratic dialogs Peter Kreeft explodes contemporary values like success, power and pleasure. And he bursts the modern bubbles of angosticism and subjectivism. He leaves us richer, wiser and more able to discern what the best things in life actually are. - Back cover. Foreword / Anytus of Athens I. Socrates and Peter Pragma. On education and E.T. On liberal education and careers On technology and inchworms On artificial intelligence and college presidents On superstition and Santa Claus On success and the greatest good II. Socrates and Felicia Flake. On pot and happiness On rock and music On sex and love On sexism and pop psychology On communism and capitalism Interlude before Felicia's Oxford tutorial On objective values Postscript Imagines how classic Greek philosophers would respond to the spiritual, ethical, and social challenges of the modern world