In the Hellenistic schools, philosophy, unlike what happens today, was not detached from the world, daily life, and the true needs of people. It was an art that aspired to give its students the intellectual and moral tools to achieve eudaimonia, which it recognized as the ultimate good. The Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics perceived philosophy as a science akin to medicine, certain that the diseases it brings to light and heals are primarily diseases of belief: wrong ideas about what is worthwhile in life.

In this book, Marta Nussbaum, with thematic axes such as the fear of death, love, anger, and aggression, critically examines the texts and positions of philosophers like Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Sextus Empiricus, Chrysippus, and Seneca - comfortably straddling the conventional boundaries between philosophy and its history, between philosophy and psychology as well as literature, between academic erudition and social concerns.