Table of Contents
Preface: Dear Violet vii
1 What Do I Know? Plato, Apology 1
2 When is it Right to Do the Wrong Thing? Plato, Crito 11
3 Have We Become Gods? Aristophanes, The Clouds 17
4 Is There Any Justice in the World? Plato, Republic 27
5 What is Happiness? Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 41
6 Is the Customer King? Aristotle, Politics, Book I 49
7 Who Should Be in Charge? Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgns 59
8 The State as Church Plutarch, The Life of Numa Pompilius 69
9 Punch the Bully in the Face Plutarch, The Life of Alexander 77
10 Hubris Plutarch, The Life of Julius Caesar 89
11 What Would Jesus Do? St. Matthew, The Gospel of Jesus Christ 97
12 Can People Change? St. Luke, The Acts of the Apostles 101
13 How Can God Let Bad Things Happen? St. Augustine, The Confessions 107
14 Do The Ends Justify the Means? Machiavelli, The Prince 115
15 What's Your Major? Montaigne, Of the Education of Children 125
16 Is America Exceptional? Montaigne, Of Cannibals 131
17 Why Am I Afraid? Montaigne, That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in Great Measure Upon the Opinion We Have of Them 137
18 What Don't I Know? Montaigne, That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity 143
19 What If Life Is Meaningless? William Shakespeare, Hamlet 151
20 What Is Government For? John Locke, Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government 163
21 What's Best For Everyone? Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract 175
22 Are Gods Immortal? Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapters 15-16 185
23 What Are "American Values"? Various, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, The Declaration of Independence 197
24 Your Rights* *Subject To Change at Any Time. Various, The Constitution of the United States 203
25 Is Greed Good? Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 215
26 Does Capitalism Work? Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party 227
Bibliography 247
About the Author 250
