Dr. Jacobs explores how ancient pagan philosophers understood human nature and the good life, examining key thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to the Stoics and Epicureans. The discussion covers metaphysical dualism, the nature of the soul, and competing views on happiness and virtue. This is a series on anthropology, part 1 of 4. 

00:00:00 Intro 

00:07:04 Metaphysical dualism

00:09:25 Empedocles 

00:10:33 Plato 

00:14:29 Pantheism 

00:15:03 Heraclitus 

00:18:52 Evil is a privation or distortion 

00:22:13 The human experience of polarity 

00:27:24 Four levels of discourse 

00:33:46 Manichaeism & Gnosticism (extreme metaphysical dualism)

00:37:15 Plato & Socrates’ nature of the soul 

00:54:35 The body and the afterlife 

01:00:27 Epicureanism 

01:08:31 Happiness and pleasure 

01:14:43 The ethics of the stoics 

01:37:29 The ethics of Plato and Aristotle